June
Luke 14:12-14
Using the example of the people we invite to the parties we organize, Jesus reminds us that the overflowing life of God’s Kingdom goes far beyond anything we can imagine and accomplish, even were we to manage our life, our resources and our relationships in the most prudent and judicious way possible.
God gives, with no strategy or keeping of accounts. He aspires to awaken in human beings someone like himself who enters into fellowship with him. The primary motivation in God’s Kingdom is the joy of unconditional giving. We are invited to take the same risk.
Those who want to take part in God’s Reign can leave behind the habitual tendency to calculate what will be most profitable to them or to create a network of people obligated to them. Loved by God, they are not the only judge of the worth of their life, nor the only one responsible for their happiness.
The poor, the lowly, those who “cannot pay you back,” become the privileged road chosen by God to open his Kingdom to us. By putting them in the place of honor, we will discover and confirm the freedom and the joy of giving.
To suppose, in God’s name, that other people, even those from whom I can expect nothing in return, are my joy, will extricate me from timidity, fear and contempt, and allow me to discover my inalienable joy. Such an outlook attests my specific human dignity and brings me to life beyond all expectations.
We are not invited to wait passively, as spectators, for the Kingdom to arrive. Living in the Spirit of Christ, we are called to take part in its coming by making ourselves servants and neighbors even of those who do not love us.
In my life, who are those who “cannot pay me back”?
In what circumstances have I discovered the joy and the freedom of giving unconditionally?
No comments:
Post a Comment