We all know the song taken from Hosea. Come back to me with all your heart. Don’t let fear keep us apart. Long have I waited for your coming home to me.
It is the Lord who seeks us sinners because he wants us to be free from sin, so that our light can shine in the world. Following after him, we will restore foundations of homes, we will be bench menders. He enable us to restore what is lost through sin, to restore health that was taken away by sickness, to bring light into the darkness of the lives of our brethren.
Lord, show me the way so that I may know your truth and experience it in my own life for the glory of you. Amen.
Saint Peter Damian, Bishop, Doctor pray for us…
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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.
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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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