The welfare system is not working. Thank God it's keeping people alive. However, it's not setting them free. It may even be enslaving and conditioning people in a generational cycle.
The nuclear family isn't working. Thank God for marital faithfulness in a society of broken promises, broken families, and broken hearts. Yet the nuclear family is not thriving. It is struggling merely to survive.
What if the nuclear family became an extended family – even a Christian community? What if welfare was not a government program? What if family hospitality took the place of welfare? What if Jesus intends today's Gospel reading to be taken literally? What if Jesus is right again about loving the poor, offering hospitality, being family, and living life?
Are you trying to share meals with "beggars and the crippled, the lame and the blind"? (Lk 14:13) Are you caring for the poor in a hands-on way? Are you caring for your brothers and sisters in Christ in a practical way?
If we lived in Christian community as described in Acts of the Apostles, maybe we would do the acts of the apostles in feeding and freeing the poor. Jesus is right.
| PRAYER: | Father, may my love for the poor open me to living in practical Christian community. |
| PROMISE: | "Hope in the Lord, both now and forever." –Ps 131:3 |
| PRAISE: | St. Martin, a humble servant of his Lord, was so one with the Body of Christ that he gave his all to serve the "poorest of the poor." |
Reprinted with permission from Presentation Ministries, a lay association of the Catholic Church that focuses on evangelization and discipleship through Bible teaching, daily Mass, the charisms of the Holy Spirit, and Small Christian Community. Their ministries include:
· One Bread, One Body
· Daily Bread Radio Program
· Annual Bible Institute
· Discipleship Retreats
· Guadalupe Bible College