28th Week, Ordinary Time, Cycle B, Year II, Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2006

Scripture: Galatians 5:1-6. Psalm 119:41-48. Luke 11:37-41.

Faith expresses itself through love. These words of Paul impressed me this morning as I turned to the daily readings. After his conversion, Paul lived this out the rest of his limited years. His love was expressed to all sorts of people because of his deep commitment in faith and love for Jesus. This led him to proclaim Christ everywhere and to everyone who listened to him. The prescriptions of the Jewish Torah were fulfilled in him, but they were not meant for the Gentiles. I personally believe he lived out his Pharisaic background while putting it into his new found faith in Christ, but that was because he was a Jew, and a zealous one at that. All the Gentiles had to do consisted in baptism in the name of Jesus Christ and observance of the commandments but not of the rituals of Judaism. His absolute trust in the Gospel brought him to suffer and to die a martyr because of his faith in Jesus. His letters are so personal that we all, whether Jewish or Christian, enter into the mind and heart of this great Apostle and Saint. Yes, more that any other writings at that time, a first century Jewish Christian comes alive these 2000 years after he had died and we all profit in some way by reading these testimonies and pastoral concerns of Paul.

Jesus today is telling us to have a magnanimous heart for others when it comes to hospitality. Surely, the ordinary rituals of politeness and cleanliness are to be observed, but the most important point in hospitality is a warm and wholesome reception of the visitor and guest. People are more important than ritual customs for it is they who are made in the image and likeness of the Creator, our God. Jesus is teaching us to open our hearts to others especially those whom we invite to our homes and our communities of faith. The teaching today is simple and direct and strikes at the heart of what is truly important in our encounter with others. May we be freed from our own limits of control, from our rituals that sometimes can be burdensome to a stranger. The important thing is to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, and, of course to put all of this into the greatest context of God's love. Amen.