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Gospel: Matthew 8: 18-22
When Jesus saw a crowd around him,
he gave orders to cross to the other shore.
A scribe approached and said to him,
“Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”
Jesus answered him, “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests,
but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.”
Another of his disciples said to him,
“Lord, let me go first and bury my father.”
But Jesus answered him, “Follow me,
and let the dead bury their dead.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
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“The Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”
Jesus was born in a borrowed stable and died in a borrowed tomb. God created the entire world – and everything in it – yet he had nowhere to lay his head during his public ministry, nor anything to call his own.
During his final night on earth, Jesus took what little he had – his own Body and Blood – and handed it over to his disciples in the Eucharist, a sacrifice which Catholics have re-presented at Mass for more than 100,000 Sundays since.
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The poverty of Jesus reminds us of the radical nature and generosity of God, who gives everything away for our own benefit – not only the created world, but even himself.
If God is so generous to us, in what ways can we pay it forward?
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Look for someone who is like Jesus in this world.
The person who has nowhere to lay their head; nowhere to rest their weary heart; no one to help shoulder their burdens.
Then offer to join them on their journey.
“For whatever you do to the least of my brothers and sisters,” Jesus teaches us, “you do to me.”
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Image credits: (1) Homeless Jesus, Vatican (2) Christ Community Church, Alaska (3) Pinterest