WHERE ARE WE FOUND?

Saturday in the 1st Week of the Ordinary Time
Mk 2:13-17

One of the saddest things that can happen to any person is to be labeled and to be called names. During the time of Jesus, tax collectors – good or bad alike –suffered from this. They were looked down upon and were considered social outcasts. Anyone was extra careful to be associated with them. But not Jesus.

Jesus mingled freely with tax collectors and other public sinners. He even chose one of them to be His close associates. His name was Matthew, formerly Levi, who became one of the apostles and gave us one of the Gospels.

The reason that Jesus gave to explain His deviant attitude toward sinners and social outcasts remains logical up until today: “It is not the healthy who need the doctor, but the sick. I did not come to call the virtuous, but sinners.”

Where should a doctor be seen? Among the sick, should it not be? Where should the Savior be found? Among the lost, should it not be?

As disciples of Jesus, called to become more and more like Him, where are we found?