Receive His Mercy

Today’s Gospel Text:  As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax office; and he said to him, "Follow me." And he rose and followed him. 10 And as he sat at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Jesus and his disciples. 11 And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" 12 But when he heard it, he said, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.' For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." Matt 9:9-13

Reflection: What an easy self explanatory passage, how well the story concludes with a punch line: “For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

The passage brings out the image Christ as bold and at the same time compassionate towards the rejects and sinners in society.  He cared less for the human program or priorities and sought to fulfill God’s priorities for us.

God’s priority was this: “'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.”

God, in his desire to show forth his mercy to the sinful world, allowed Christ Jesus to become the sacrifice.

Has anything changed in the Christian community down the ages? Do we mix around freely with the sinners or the rejects of society? And if we do, then is it with the intention of bringing Christ’s love and forgiveness to them.

On the other hand you have a class of people who go beyond the scripture and every form of true religion. Who assert that, in the first place, you should not identify people as sinners and thus discriminate between them or create guilt in their hearts.

Call it by another name, but the reality doesn’t change; we all are sinners and so every man is guilty of transgression before the holy God.

I abhor such sociological noble thinkers, the superior idiots of our age, whose agenda of rehabilitation is only superficial, external and divisive, achieving only a temporary harmony in the social order.  

The real harmony is the internal and eternal one, which only Christ Jesus can bring about, first by healing the internal wounds of sin and reconciling humans to the creator and his creation.

Prayer: Lord, I am a sinner, for in sin I was conceived in my mother’s womb, help me to live a life reconciled to you and one another. (cfr. Ps. 51:5)

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