Monday of the 1st
Week of Lent
February 23, 2015 8:30am
Today’s gospel is one of the most
well-known passages in the Scripture.
It is also one of the most
challenging.
Jesus wants us not only to care
for the least, the lost, and the last among us.
He even wants us to see himself
in them.
In fact, he says that what you do
for them, you do for me.
So, in effect, he is saying that
he is the least of our brothers and sisters.
And then he says that the real
test of our discipleship is what we do for the least in our midst.
Think about this.
Even though he accents the
importance of the Eucharist by telling us to do this in memory of him, he says
that the criterion for our ultimate destiny will be how we respond to the least
among us.
In a way, it is mind-blowing.
I want to read something from
Dorothy Day.
You may know that Dorothy Day
died in 1980 at the age of 83.
She was a convert to Catholicism
and became a devout Catholic.
She was committed to social
justice.
She cared directly for those in
need and also did social advocacy.
Dorothy Day was a co-founder of
the Catholic Worker Movement.
She lived and worked in New York.
Her cause for canonization began
about three years ago.
In her Selected Writings, she comments on today’s gospel.
“[Christ] made heaven hinge on the way we act toward Him, in His
disguise of commonplace, frail, ordinary humanity.
Is it likely that Martha and Mary sat back and considered that they had
done all that was expected of them – is it likely that Peter’s mother-in-law
grudgingly served the chicken she had meant to keep till Sunday because she
thought it was her ‘duty’?
She did it gladly; she would have served ten chickens if she had had
them.
If that is the way they gave hospitality to Christ, it is certain that
this is the way it should still be given
Not for the sake of humanity.
Not because it might be Christ who stays with us, comes to see us,
takes up our time.
Not because these people remind us of Christ…but because they are
Christ.”
