From today's first reading: "Thus says the LORD: I know their works and their thoughts, and I come to gather nations of every language; they shall come and see my glory. I will set a sign among them; from them I will send fugitives to the nations: to Tarshish, Put and Lud, Mosoch, Tubal and Javan, to the distant coastlands that have never heard of my fame, or seen my glory; and they shall proclaim my glory among the nations."

From today's gospel reading: "And there will be wailing and grinding of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and you yourselves cast out. And people will come from the east and the west and from the north and the south and will recline at table in the kingdom of God."

From the General Council's Lasallian Reflection 1 (2015-2016): "As Brother Álvaro Rodríguez, former Superior General, emphasized, poverty takes many forms: there is the poverty of isolation and abandonment; the poverty of the excluded, who live on the edges of rich and opulent cities, those branded the society’s “failures"; the poverty of the victims of a culture of identity that refuses to accept what is different; the poverty of AIDS’ victims; the poverty of those entrapped in addictions; yet another poverty is the condition of those with physical or mental problems; the poverty of migrants and refugees, many of whom live in hiding; the poverty of those who are enslaved and trafficked; the poverty of those who live without God, of those who have deliberately removed God from their lives; finally, there is the poverty of those young people who live without meaning or trust in their lives. . . We should not fear the migrant or the poor. We can learn and be enriched by persons who are different to us. In fidelity to our Lasallian identity and ideals, we can discern what is right and just."

Our readings today challenge us to go to the margins of our society and our world to proclaim the good news of God's kingdom, and to allow to its banquet those from the peripheries and those places we do not, or perhaps would prefer not, to see. It is a reality that we are truly privileged to serve at San Miguel, where our students and their families cannot afford the cost of the education that we provide. But the General Council reminds us to go farther, as poverty goes beyond an economic meaning. How are we God's presence to those who live on the margins of our own community: those who walk to class alone, eat lunch alone, who are "different" in some way than the majority of our students, have physical disabilities, or are always silent? We cannot solve many of their problems, but in our discernment, we can know that it is just and right to discover how to invite them, bring them, to the joy of the banquet where they will enrich all of us. Who is that student (or students) for you?

Live, Jesus, in our hearts!