Do we realised just how Blessed we are to have an ever loving and merciful God? That He our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ looks not on our sins but into deep into our hearts and sees the powerful instrument of His grace that we can become! And He sees this in ALL of us not any special select few.
That said let us see how it would be like if the Lord looked at us the way we look at others. “He will never change why bother?” “She is what she is! Just let her be” “Uncouth, vulgar leave him be!” “He should get a job instead of just sitting around begging” “She is a divorcee how dare she serve as communion minister” You and I very well know that the lists is far too long and if Christ looked upon us the way we do others, then what hope do we have? We look upon the imperfections of others as though we were perfect. While He who is perfect looks upon us, as the perfection we can be through Him.
That is why He called Levi to follow Him, just as He is calling each and everyone of us to do likewise. So that leaving our past behind us to follow Him, we experience God our Father’s love for us to the full; and having experienced His love we can look upon others with the same merciful and loving eyes. Amen
First reading
Isaiah 58:9-14
You will be like a spring whose waters never run dry
The Lord says this:
If you do away with the yoke,
the clenched fist, the wicked word,
if you give your bread to the hungry,
and relief to the oppressed,
your light will rise in the darkness,
and your shadows become like noon.
The Lord will always guide you,
giving you relief in desert places.
He will give strength to your bones
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water
whose waters never run dry.
You will rebuild the ancient ruins,
build up on the old foundations.
You will be called ‘Breach-mender’,
‘Restorer of ruined houses.’
If you refrain from trampling the sabbath,
and doing business on the holy day,
if you call the Sabbath ‘Delightful’,
and the day sacred to the Lord ‘Honourable’,
if you honour it by abstaining from travel,
from doing business and from gossip,
then shall you find your happiness in the Lord
and I will lead you triumphant over the heights of the land.
I will feed you on the heritage of Jacob your father.
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
Gospel
Luke 5:27-32
Jesus comes not to call the virtuous, but sinners to repentance
Jesus noticed a tax collector, Levi by name, sitting by the customs house, and said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And leaving everything he got up and followed him.
In his honour Levi held a great reception in his house, and with them at table was a large gathering of tax collectors and others. The Pharisees and their scribes complained to his disciples and said, ‘Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?’ Jesus said to them in reply, ‘It is not those who are well who need the doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the virtuous, but sinners to repentance.’
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