Let us take from our midst vain and wicked excuses and let us come to the banquet by which we will be inwardly filled.... And who come except beggars, the sick, the limping, the blind? The healthy rich have not come, those who walk well and have keen eyesight and count greatly on themselves and are, then, the more desperate the prouder they are. Let beggars come because he invites them who although he was rich became poor for our sake so that we beggars might be enriched by his poverty (2 Cor 8:9). Let the sick come because it is not the healthy but the sick who need a doctor (Mt 9:12). Let the limping come and say to him, Set my steps firmly on your paths (Ps 16[17]: 5). Let the blind come and say, Enlighten my eyes so that I may never sleep in death (Ps 12:4).(Augustine, Sermon 112, 8; PL 38, 647)

Rev. Joseph A. Komonchak, professor emeritus of the School of Theology and Religious Studies at the Catholic University of America, is a retired priest of the Archdiocese of New York.

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