5th November, 2013
Jesus has the table spread; where the saints of God are fed; he invites his chosen people come and dine! The spread that Jesus has is joy, hope, love, sharing, caring, helping, encouragement, honour, respect, service, hospitality, empathy - all that we see in the first reading, from Paul's letter to the Romans (a profile of a perfect Christian from chapter 12). But we are too busy with our own choices, too busy setting ourselves up, towards selfishness, envy, pride, jealousy, insensitivity, avarice, competition, hatred, enmity... we choose not to pick from the spread that Jesus has - but later blame the Lord, complain against the Lord when things go wrong! It takes courage to choose God, to say 'yes' to God's invitation and partake in God's banquet. Only when we dare do that we can meaningfully pray the verse from the responsorial today, "In you, O Lord, I have found my peace!"