Redeeming The Time

There is a deeper meaning to the words of Jesus to the Pharisee when he sat and ate dinner with him. He told him that he should never invite people only to get a reward from them. Everybody knows this. But do we do other things for people, expecting some sort of reward, not in terms of money or some material thing, but something? For a priest and any Christian, it is hard to encounter people for whom you do things, but they do not respond as we wish them to respond. The spiritual meaning of our Lord’s words is that the only goal we should have for any human being is that we love them, and if we do that then we are completely successful, no matter what they do in response to our love. This is very simple, and not so easy. We also mentioned St. John the Almsgiver, whose day it is, who exemplified this virtue of which we are speaking.