In the Gospel according to Matthew, Jesus tells a parable about a king who invites his friends to a feast. The fair-weather friends refuse for one reason or another. So he says: invite whomever you find. Appropriate dress: "clothed" in a right relationship with God.
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| Babette's Feast: A favorite Film of Pope Francis |
A dinner can bring people together. “Babette's Feast” won an academy award and is a favorite film of Pope Francis. Babette, a French chef, finds herself in a small town where its puritanical religiosity makes people hard and cold and judgmental, afraid to enjoy anything or anyone. Babette wins a lottery and spends her winnings on a huge, delectable feast for the townspeople. As they begin to taste and enjoy each course of the meal, they start to communicate good-naturedly. The meal transformed them into warm-hearted human beings.
Babette models self-giving and elicits joy, a foretaste of heaven. The toast captures why, I think, Pope Francis likes the movie. Here's a paraphrase of the toast:
There comes a time when your eyes are opened.
And we come to realize…that mercy is infinite.
We need only await it with confidence…and receive it with gratitude.
St. Paul in his letter to the Ephesians asks us to be imitators of God, to live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us. (Eph 5:1–2). Paul gives us at least five ingredients for good relationships:
--Paul urges us to be authentic, to speak the truth to one another. (Eph 4:25) Try to live a life of honesty and integrity. Authenticity makes it easy to admit we’re far from perfect, and steers us away from hypocrisy.
--Paul asks us to be passionate about what's right. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., for example, had a passionate hatred against discrimination that led him to champion civil rights. Nelson Mandela hated apartheid and he championed freedom. Jesus had a righteous anger about the money changers in the temple that led him to throw them out. Yes, anger should result in righting wrongs.
--Paul encourages the Ephesians to get an honest job so that they can help others. Work is an integral part of life; it's doing something useful, as well as giving us resources to help those in need.
--Paul advises us to watch how we talk. Say only what helps. Our words can build people up. Encouragement is like verbal sunshine. It costs nothing, it warms hearts and can changes lives.
--and Paul exhorts us to be gentle. Forgive one another as quickly as God forgives us. God's vision of church is a community of disciples welcoming all. The church, to paraphrase Pope Francis, is a field hospital where wounds are healed.
With these five ingredients in our relationships, God can work wonders through us for others.
