The LORD Hears the Poor"

Today's Mass Readings

The gospel reading for today is a very challenging one – one we are likely to dismiss as unrealistic or try to explain away using a spiritual understanding. Could it be that Jesus really wants us to include such undesirables – the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind – at our dinners and lunches? How would we even go about doing such a thing? It’s such a foreign concept in our way of life, as it would have been for the Pharisee who was hosting Jesus. But perhaps it is even more so for us today in America, because we have done such a good job of separating the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind from the rest of us. Rather than trying to integrate these people into our society, we tend to tuck them away in corners so we won’t have to confront them on a daily basis. Jesus is right in calling us to account for this detestable behavior, and we must allow this gospel passage to challenge us, to make us evaluate our behavior to those who society deems as somehow worth less than others. As the psalm says, “the Lord hears the poor.” Shouldn’t we, as well? Our sin on this account brings out the mercy discussed by Paul in today’s first reading. Disobedience and mercy, disobedience and mercy, disobedience and mercy – this theme runs through the passage. As the poor may never be able to repay us with a fancy dinner in our honor, so we will never be able to repay God for his loving and gracious mercy to us. In this sense, we are the outcasts, the weak, the disobedient sinners in need of mercy.

Let us examine our lives in order that we may see our great need for God’s mercy. In so doing, the point is not to beat ourselves up, but to open ourselves up to the infinite love of God, who challenges us to do his will while also comforting us as we fail in doing his will. May we never cease praying for God’s mercy upon us and upon all his children, including those we might rather forget or ignore.

- Maria Morrow