Gospel: November 4, 2024
November 4, 2024 (Monday)
31st Week in Ordinary Time
Psalter: Week 3 / (White)
St. Charles Borromeo, bishop
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 131: 1bcde, 2, 3
In you, O Lord, I have found my peace.
1st Reading: Philippians 2: 1-4
If I may advise you, in the name of Christ, and if you can hear it, as the voice of love; if we share the same Spirit, and are capable of mercy and compassion, then I beg of you, make me very happy: have one love, one spirit, one feeling, do nothing through rivalry or vain conceit. On the contrary, let each of you gently consider the others, as more important than yourselves. Do not seek your own interest, but, rather, that of others.
Gospel: Luke 14: 12-14
Jesus also addressed the man who had invited him, and said, “When you give a lunch or a dinner, don’t invite your friends, or your brothers and relatives, or your wealthy neighbors. For surely they will also invite you in return, and you will be repaid. When you give a feast, invite instead the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind. Fortunate are you then, because they cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the upright.”
Reflection:
“Transactional relationship”
Reading today’s Gospel at the surface, we might be wondering why Jesus would be telling the things he told to the man who invited him. Was he ungrateful to the one who invited him or was he just plain killjoy? Of course not! The message of today’s Gospel poses a challenge of surpassing a shallow relationship—a relationship that is merely transactional. Jesus invites us to grow in terms of interpersonal relationship—a relationship that respects and values the other as a person and not as a mere commodity or product with which one may gain something for personal profit. Jesus is challenging us to do good for other people without expecting anything in return. When we give something to other people, we give not because we are compelled but by our very nature because giving is part and parcel of our true nature. As we continue with our faith journey, we may aspire more and more for relationships that are interpersonal rather than transactional.
