Gospel (Lk 14,12-14) - At that time, Jesus said to the leader of the Pharisees who had invited him: «When you offer a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they in turn invite you. them too, and you may be repaid. On the contrary, when you offer a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; and you will be blessed because they do not have to repay you. In fact, you will receive your reward at the resurrection of the righteous."

The commentary on the Gospel by Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia

Jesus completely overturns the world's usual rules of behavior. To the meticulous care with which distinguished guests are chosen, he contrasts the generosity and generosity in calling those who cannot reciprocate. And he lists the poor, the blind, the crippled and the lame. All of these, who are excluded from ordinary life, are instead chosen by Jesus to participate in the banquet that is to be prepared. It is a new conception of relationships between men that Jesus himself experienced first: our relationships must be founded not on reciprocity but on gratuitousness, on unilateral love, precisely, as is the love of God which embraces everyone but starting from poor. And happiness, contrary to what is ordinarily thought, lies precisely in extending the banquet of life to all the excluded, without expecting a reward from them. The real reward, in fact, is being able to work in the field of love, brotherhood and solidarity. Furthermore, only in this perspective can a world be built on solid and peaceful foundations. On the contrary, the widening of the distance between those who are at the table of life and those who are excluded from it, as unfortunately is still happening today in the world, undermines the roots of peace between peoples. The message of the Gospel is exactly the opposite: the primacy of gratuitousness, as Jesus himself lived and proclaimed, remains one of the most urgent tasks that Christians must bear witness to before men. It is a dimension that appears difficult to live, but it is the only perspective that protects the world, in the current difficult historical moment, from falling into the abyss of violence. Whoever understands and lives this dimension of love is blessed today and will receive tomorrow "the reward in the resurrection of the just".