Friday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time
When I was in college, I lived in an intentional faith community house with 5 other guys. The life of the community was intended to be centered around prayer, fellowship, and outreach. The six of us built a household community of faith, friendship, and fun. In the midst of our individual lives, we established a rhythm of praying together, sharing in daily tasks, gathering around the table for meals, and supporting one another in the many other areas in which we were involved, both on and off campus. Looking back, we were fortunate to bond over many spaghetti dinners, liturgy of the hours, games of euchre, sleeves of Oreos, and evenings on the porch. However, as I reflected on the gospel today, I was drawn back to the third pillar of living in this intentional community–outreach.
One of my favorite memories from those two years of community living was a combination of two initiatives we set forth to accomplish: Free Hug Friday and monthly Pierogi Parties for the neighborhood. We made highlighter yellow shirts with the words Free Hug Friday on them and wore the shirts every Friday throughout both our junior and senior years as we went about our day giving hugs around campus on our way to class, the rec center, work, club meetings, noon mass, and more. Second, we planned pierogi parties and used the Free Hug Friday t-shirts to invite people to join us for some free food Friday afternoons at the end of classes before they started their weekend. What were the key elements of our initiatives? Invitation, inclusion, and grace. It didn’t matter who you were, we wanted to bring a little joy to your day with a hug and invite you to a meal, all were welcome to the party. We gave out a lot of hugs and cooked a lot of pierogies.
The life and ministry of Jesus was entirely eucharistic–it was centered around the sacred meal. In the conversion of Matthew, we further find similar key elements in Jesus’ ministry (hence the model we endeavored to follow in our Free Hug Friday and Pierogi Parties): invitation, inclusion, and grace. Matthew was sitting at his post and “[Jesus] said to him, ‘Follow me’” (Mt 9:9b) - invitation. Then, we discover the next layer of Jesus’ ministry after Matthew’s conversion; “While he was at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat with Jesus and his disciples” (Mt 9:10) - inclusion. Not only does Jesus call us sinners to conversion, but then he invites us to a party?!? Yes, you read that right, God wants nothing more than to draw us back into communion with him - grace. God is entirely love, through and through, hugs all around and the party is never-ending. We just need to respond to the invitation. God always has his Free Hug shirt on–not just on Fridays–and his party is way more satisfying than any pierogies.
Happy Friday! Today, find someone that needs a free hug (and if you’ve never had a pierogi, it’s definitely worth a try)--most of us need one from time to time. We are sinners, born to be saints. Our good and loving God is inviting us to follow him to the party. Will you be there?
Peace,
Brandon Meyer