Rather, when you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous. (Lk 14:12-13)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/110325.cfm
Saint Martin de Porres (1579-1639), illegitimate son of a Spaniard and a freed African slave, was not always welcomed at the table. Members of his religious community made fun of him for being illegitimate and descended from slaves and called him a “mulatto dog”. My mother worked as a nurse at Blessed Martin de Porres Hospital (a maternity hospital for Black women) in Mobile, Alabama. When Martin was canonized in 1962 by Pope John XXIII, “Blessed” was removed and “Saint” in new letters was added.
These reflections are a result of more than 40 years of ministry as a Roman Catholic priest. Most of these years I spent in the Diocese of Charlotte which covers Western North Carolina. Now I am retired, and live in Medellín, Colombia where I continue to serve as a priest in the Archdiocese of Medellín.
Saint Martin de Porres, religious, November 3
