"When you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you." Today Jesus instructs us to be generous enough to serve others without expecting repayment. At least, without expecting to be repaid in THIS life. It's interesting that the Gospel concludes with Jesus' promise that if we follow this teaching, we "will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous." In other words, God will "repay" our generosity on earth by welcoming us into heaven. Really, what better investment could there possibly be?

"Behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last." For Jesus' original audience, this reference was meant for those Jews who presumed their salvation while judging others as being unworthy of entering the kingdom of God. Jesus was always quick to teach that believing in him was what mattered, not membership in a certain class or a particular religious circle. Therefore, some of the (last) Gentiles who professed faith in Jesus were ready to enter the kingdom before some of the (first) Jews who rejected the Messiah.

"From now on a household of five will be divided, three against two and two against three." What a sad image Jesus paints in today's Gospel. Causing family strife--fathers against sons and mothers against daughters--is not the effect we like to imagine Jesus having on people. But as he says today, "Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division." The fact is, and always has been, that not everyone chooses to follow Christ. This causes conflict.