Today is the 22nd Sunday of the year c in ordinary time. From the three readings we have on this Sunday, the first reading and the gospel emphasize the need for us to live a humble life; a life of witness, a life of humility, a life of service. As we go through readings on this Sunday, the lord enjoins us to put these into practice in our lives. These are the attributes that should be found in our lives as children of God. It is interesting today in the Gospel when we see Jesus is inviting us in a special way this Sunday to be cautious about the guests in our celebrations. Today, Jesus is shaking a table that is sensitive, so to say. Today Jesus says it should not just be our group of friends that are invited to our celebrations. Jesus is saying today that the poor have to be part of our celebrations; the maimed, and the blind should all be part of our celebrations. It is in celebrating with these people that we truly encounter God; that is when we truly meet God, because it is God in our midst at such a moment.
Dear friends in Christ on this 22nd Sunday, one very important question we should ask ourselves is, does the poor have a place in my life? Am I willing to be at the service of the less privileged and the most abandoned? It is not about being religious. It is moral of being truly humane, it is more of being truly a child of God, it is more of being truly Christian, people who believe in the resurrection, people who believe that the poor have a place in our society and in our lives. My brothers and sisters in Christ, for us to be able to be part of this new Jerusalem that letter to the Hebrews talks about today, we have to imbibe this wonderful culture that our readings today presents to us. The culture of detachment, the culture of humility, the culture of selflessness, the culture that gives each and every person that encounters us a place in our lives. It could be challenging, it could be difficult, but one thing that should always encourage us is that the grace of God is sufficient for us. The most important thing is; are we willing to cooperate with this grace? Because he presents for us his grace at all time. It is only for to be willing and play our own part and cooperate with the grace of God.
Dear friends in Christ let us continually strive to live out the Gospel imperatives , to live out our lives as true children of God so that the blessings of God will abound in our lives. The call to service is the call that all of us as people of God should imbibe irrespective of our class, irrespective of our state. Let us make honest effort to ensure that we begin to live it out in our daily lives. When we are humble like we see from the illustration given by Jesus today in the Gospel, when we are humble we will be exalted, when we are humble we have nothing to lose but everything to gain. But when we are arrogant, when we exalt ourselves we are bound to always experience humiliation, that is why dear friends in Christ we must make honest effort to go by the invitation presented to us today, the invitation to be true children of God, the invitation to see every human person whether within our class or not as a child of God; and allow the love of God to direct us in all our actions. We pray that God in his infinite goodness and love grant us the graces we need to live like true children of God at all times, to imbibe this culture of humility, the culture of service and being at the service of people of God at all times. Peace be with you!!!!! Amen.