your wealthy neighbors. For surely they will also invite you in return, and you will be repaid.
When you give a feast, invite instead the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind. Fortunate
are you then, because they cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the
upright.”

Reflect

“Transactional relationship.” Reading today’s Gospel at the surface, we might be
wondering why Jesus would be telling the things he told to the man who invited him.
Was he ungrateful to the one who invited him or was he just plain kill-joy? Of course not!
The message of today’s Gospel poses a challenge of surpassing a shallow relationship
– a relationship that is merely transactional. Jesus invites us to grow in terms of
interpersonal relationship – a relationship that respects and values the other as a person
and not as a mere commodity or product with which one may gain something for personal
profit. Jesus is challenging us to do good for other people without expecting anything
in return. When we give something to other people, we give not because we are compelled
but by our very nature because giving is part and parcel of our true nature. As we
continue with our faith journey, we may aspire more and more for relationships
that are interpersonal rather than transactional.

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