Sunday, April 23 : Saint Gregory the Great

There were two disciples on a journey together. They did not believe and yet they were speaking about the Lord. Suddenly he himself appeared but in a form they were unable to recognise… They invited him to share their company, as one does with a traveller… So they prepared the table, set the meal, and the God whom they had failed to recognise in Scriptural explanation they now discovered in the breaking of bread. Thus it was not in hearing God’s commandments that their minds were opened but in doing them: “For it is not those who hear the law who are just in the sight of God; rather, those who observe the law will be justified” (Rom 2,13). If anyone wants to understand what he has heard, he should hasten to carry out whatever of it he has already managed to grasp. The Lord was not recognised while he was speaking; but he deigned to make himself known when he was offered a meal. So let us delight in hospitality, my very dear brethren; let us take pleasure in practising charity. With regard to this Paul affirms: “Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect hospitality, for through it some have unknowingly entertained angels” (Heb 13,1f.; Gn 18,1f.). Peter says, too: “Be hospitable to one another without complaining” (1Pt 4,9). And Truth itself declares to us: “I was a stranger and you welcomed me”… “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine,” the Lord will say on Judgement Day, “you did for me” (Mt 25,35.40)… Yet in spite of all this, how lazy we are before the grace of hospitality! Let us take our measure of this virtue’s greatness, my brothers. Let us welcome Christ to our table so that we may be welcomed at his eternal banquet. Let us show hospitality to Christ present in the stranger at this present time so that when judgement comes we may not be like strangers whom he does not recognise (Lk 13,25) but he may receive us like brothers into his Kingdom.
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team