Whom is Jesus at Home With?

WHOM IS JESUS AT HOME WITH?

It is clear from His life
that Jesus feels at home,
not with the intellectuals or with people in power,
but with the poor, the needy, those in pain,
with children that his disciples wanted to keep away.
As his ministry progressed
we see him insisting on the privileged place of the poor
in his vision and his heart:
his option for the poor and for sinner,
his preference love for them:
“When you give a meal,
do not invite your richer friends and your family,
for fear that they will invite you back;
rather invite to a banquet the poor, the lame,
the sick and the blind.”
He tells of the King giving a wedding fear for his son.
All the “worthy” people invited refuse.
“Go then into the highway and the byways,”
he says to the servants,
“and invite the poor, the lame,
the sick and the blind.”
They, of course, accept the invitation with joy!

The poor can be the economically poor,
who are the hungry, homeless and out of work,
or the rejected ones—
those put aside because of their infirmities and handicaps,
their apparent uselessness.
They are longing to be accepted and loved,
longing for meaning and a healing relationship.
The poor are those caught up in sin,
yet craving also to be liberated from it.
The poor are also any of us
who are sad and alone, feeling guilty and unloved.
The poor know their own emptiness.
They do not hide from it.
They long for a saviour
who will heal their hearts
and bring them peace.