Saturday, February
16, 2002
Saturday after Ash Wednesday
1st Reading:
Is 58:9-14
Gospel: Lk 5:27-32
Jesus
noticed a tax collector named Levi sitting in the tax-office, he said
to him, "Follow me." So Levi, leaving everything, got up and
followed Jesus.
Levi gave a great feast for Jesus, and many tax collectors came to his
house and took their place at table with the other people. Then the Pharisees
and their fellow teachers complained to Jesus' disciples, "How is
it that you eat and drink with tax collectors and other sinners?"
But Jesus spoke up, "Healthy people don't need a doctor, but sick
people do. I have come to call to repentance; I call sinners, not the
righteous."
Commentary
Sometimes the hardest thing to sustain is a sense of hope. Corruption,
greed, inefficiency, degradation of the environment, poverty, violence...can
we contribute to changing these things? Without hope, no energy for action.
Without action, no change. Without change, no hope.
Jesus Christ can empower us with the hope that gives energy for action.
Jesus saw Levi, caught up in the unjust system, exploiting other people
just to make a living. And Jesus called him: "Follow me." We're
caught up in the unjust system too, part of it, paying the minimum wage
to employees, knowing we couldn't survive on that ourselves. Yet, Jesus
offers us the hand of friendship. Because we're sick. And underneath,
Isaiah's call to change unjust structures continues to echo: "Remove
the clenched fist and the wicked word.... give relief to the oppressed…
God will make you as a watered garden, like a spring of water whose waters
never fail."