My dearest handsome and beautiful lovers, please can you spare me some minutes of your time and let’s reason together.
1. Who was there when God was creating the universe?
2. Who among us advised God on how to create the universe?
3. Who among us was His architect, consultant, engineer, contractor, etc. that helped in designing and creating the universe?
4. Who among us knows the beginning and the end of the universe?
5. Whom did He consult among all of us before He fashioned us in our mother’s womb?
I guess none of us can answer the above questions. This is more reason St. Paul in his letter to the Romans posed the questions to us through the Romans saying…
“For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counsellor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever.”
So, I believe it should be a wake-up call to all of us that we live solely on the mercy of God. We should appreciate His mercy in our lives.
However, in reciprocating God’s love and mercy, we should do that to our brothers and sisters whom we come in contact with every day.
More reason Jesus in today’s Gospel advised us to show love and mercy especially to those who can not repay us.
Quoting directly the words of Jesus…
“When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your kinsmen or rich neighbours, lest they also invite you in return, and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”
Invariably, our show of love and mercy should not be limited to those whom we know will repay us, but to those whom we know can not repay us. It has great blessings here on earth, and much greater in heaven; because helping those who cannot repay us signifies appreciating God whom we do not see physically, but through His creature.
Rev. Fr. Segun Oladeji, CRS.