Gospel: Matthew 9:9-13
As Jesus moved on from there, he saw a man named Matthew, at his seat in the custom-house; and he said to him, “Follow me!” And Matthew got up and followed him. Now it happened, while Jesus was at table in Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners joined Jesus and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why is it that your master eats with sinners and tax collectors?” When Jesus heard this, he said, “Healthy people do not need a doctor, but sick people do. Go, and find out what this means: What I want is mercy, not sacrifice. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Reflection:
“He eats with sinners and tax collectors.”
The Pharisees kept to a strict form of observance of the Jewish Law. The name coming from the Hebrew and Aramaic parush literally means “one who is separated.” They kept away from everything that was impure according to the Law. The Scriptures encourage us to keep away from evil and from all that would lead us away from God (Ps 1:1-2). Likewise, the Church teaches that we should not place ourselves into occasions of sin. However, the Pharisees turned separation from sin into a separation from people, thinking that they were religiously superior (Jn 7:49). Jesus, on the other hand, “eats with sinners and tax collectors.” Jesus is not placing himself in an occasion of sin. Rather, he is sitting with the sinful to bring God’s mercy to them and invite them to a new way of living. Here God is reaching out to humanity in its frailty rather than separating himself from it. The Church has the mission to continue this same task, to bring God’s mercy into people’s lives so that they might draw closer to God rather than feel rejected. Thus, Pope Francis describes the Church as a “field hospital for the vulnerable.”
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