Welcoming the sinners

Gospel Reflection

Jesus saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the customs post.

He said to him, “Follow me.”

And leaving everything behind, he got up and followed him.

Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house,

and a large crowd of tax collectors

and others were at table with them.

The Pharisees and their scribes complained to his disciples, saying,

“Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”

Jesus said to them in reply,

“Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do.

I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners.”

Luke 5:27-32

Today is Saturday after Ash Wednesday and today we heard how Matthew was called and how his calling scandalized many Pharisees and Sadducees. 

How could he eat with sinners? With traitors who steal from their fellow Jews? 

This is very interesting because today Jesus clarified for whom he came for and this is that he came for sinners, which also tells us for whom we are sent to.

Yes, we don't need to go to the righteous, or the self-righteous at that, because they don't need us. They are already supposed to be reconciled with the Father. Instead, we are to go to those who have strayed away from the Father in order to bring them back to him by giving them an experience of God's love.

The righteous are expected to do the same, that is to go to the sinners and allow them to realize God's love for them. But, honestly, who among us are truly righteous? 

We are all struggling to live a righteous life, but we always fail and that is why we always need him. That is why we make an effort to return to him and for this we are grateful for the sacraments that helps us to mend our broken relationship with the Father.

We are grateful for the sacrament of baptism that cleanses us from whatever it is that we inherited from our ancestors, our societal sins. We are grateful for the sacrament of confession that allows us to experience his love for us through forgiveness. We are grateful for the sacrament of the Eucharist that unites us with Christ in his suffering, death, and resurrection. We are grateful for the sacrament of confirmation that strengthens us to live a holy life. We are grateful for the sacrament of the healing of the sick that allows us to recognize our failures and truly experience His healing power. We are grateful for all these gifts that the Father, through Christ, has given us so that we would be able to reunite with him whenever we 

But just as we experience the forgiveness of the father, we too are asked by our lord to be forgiving, to be accepting to those who are different from us, who have caused us pain, who have caused us so much suffering. 

In our first reading from the prophet Isaiah, the Lord said: "If you remove from your midst oppression, false accusation and malicious speech; If you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted; Then light shall rise for you in the darkness, and the gloom shall become for you like midday."

Light will rise amidst the gloom, if we try to live according to God's precepts. 

In our Gospel reading, we heard how Jesus chose and welcomed a person who, in the eyes of the Jews, was a sinner, and worse, he dined with him and his friends. 

This caught the attention of the Pharisees and Sadducees and immediately complained to Jesus's disciples. But Jesus said: "I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners."

We too, my dear brothers and sisters, are invited to welcome our brothers and sisters who have fallen astray from the church because of their precarious lifestyle. They have forgotten to depend on the Lord, for this they are easily swayed by matters of the flesh.

How do we welcome them, how do we become a church that would serve as the wellspring of God's salvation, of God's kaginhawahan for all? 

Let us ask for the Father for a heart that welcomes sinners and for us to recognize our sinfulness and may our good Lord open our hearts to our brothers and sisters who have wronged us and allow them to find Jesus in their life.

Photo: Maximalfocus | Unsplash