Accepting Service

TS blogs today about the balance between serving and being served. Similar thoughts struck me after Sunday's Gospel. We are uncomfortable being served or being the object of charity. Yet if no one was in need where would we sow our charity. So it is in service of charity that we accept graciously the goodwill and goods of others.

This is a hard lesson-one Mrs. Curley and I have had to learn in these recent years. So many have given to our family without thought of a return (as we had no means of repayment)-simply out of love. We were taught alot about love in the past few years.

Christ's admonishmnet to the host of the banquet in Sunday's Gospel to invite those who could not repay struck a chord with me, as our friends have done this for us, and now as we must do for others.

When Benedict XVI's first encyclical came out, this is one of the points I wanted to make-but never found the right words. Christian communities give of themselves and to others without considering the payback. And those receiving must accept with charity but not with greed or expectation.

Oremus pro invicem!