Fr. Bantu Mendonça Writes from Angola

Jesus, upon looking upon the owner of the good feast as one of the invited, remained disappointed. Then directing his word to the leader of the pharisees that invited him said: “When you give a lunch or dinner, do not invite your friends, nor your brothers, nor your parents, nor your rich neighbors, because, certainly, they also will invite you and thus pay the kindness that you did.”

I want to remind you that the gospel on the banquet of the poor and the lame permits us to approach the theme of the Church as universal assembly and indiscrimate of the Sons of God. The salvific plan of God, manifested in Jesus of Nazareth, presents itself definitively as the universal and indiscriminate assembly of the dispersed children of God. Therefore the Church across the various associative modalities, or congregations visualized through love, her ministers and sacraments, over all the Eucharistic celebration, manifests herself in multiple local assemblies.

The Church, still, opens herself to the divine project of  welcoming all by faith in Christ. She pursues and prolongs the work of the universal congregation of the children of God, focusing on the poor and the marginalized in the quality of the first invited to the feast of messianic goods, for if the poor are invited, none can feel excluded. However, the Church never will be an end in herself, but the media through which is processed the unity of men among themselves and with God in Christ. Therefore, the theme of the universal congregation points to the definitive banquet of the Reign of God, in which the children of God will be welcome in the dwelling place of the Father (Jn 14:2-3), to Jerusalem on High (Apoc 21:10; Hb 12:22-23)

The preferential love for the poor, the open space to the marginalized, the promotion of the needs will always be evident signs of the Reign of God that the Church announces, living and building. The Reign itself manifests its strength and vitality, congregating the poor in the Church of Christ to promote to them a life more worthy to eternal life.

Luke presents the theme of humility at the beginning of the parable of the chosen of the invited.

How muchof the parable of the chosen of the invited, points to the humility of whomever invites the marginalized, and accents–much like Luke–the importance of the poor in the Reign of God. In the reality there is a basic question that is imposed to those who believe in the welcome owed to the poor and the needy, privileged by Jesus.

In wise tone that stresses the consequences of human acts, it is better for Jesus to invite the poor, for they have nothing to return, the recompense of gratitude has to be given through God himself in the resurrection of the Just. In the same way, thus as it is convenient to put oneself in the last place through the experience of humility, also it is more beneficial to invite the poor and the lame to the banquet than friends, parents and rich neighbors.

Conscious that Jesus inaugurates the universal banquet of the poor (Is 55:1-5) Luke insists in the generosity of the divine gesture that choose all in His Reign, called to attention through the same attitude of those that invite the ones that cannot reciprocate.

Who are those that participate in his feast? With whom do you spend your money? And How do you spend it? Remember the appeal of the Master: When you give a banquet, invite the blind, the lame, the poor and you will be blessed. For they will not be able to pay for what you did, but God will pay you in the day in which person that do this will experience the resurrection of the just.

Fr. Bantu Mendonça

Translated from Portuguese