Saturday of 1st Week, uneven numbered year
“As Jesus was walking along he saw Levi the son of Alpheus sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, ’Follow me.’ And he got up and followed him.”
Jesus came from the lake shore of the sea of Galilee and all the crowd rushed around him on all sides. He asked the Levite, Matthew to follow Him. Matthew does so immediately and Jesus is invited to a meal following this call. Matthew invites all his publican friends for this event which is so important in his life! Seeing Jesus with the sinners the publicans scandilses the scribes. How can this man eat with these sinners and publicans! Jesus is the Divine Doctor. He looked at all the sick and those who are in good health. We touch on the Mercy of the Heart of God. Matthew the publican is taken up in a new situation.It is his duty to redefine his life concerning this conversion for no one else can do it in his place. Jesus accompanies him, but he doesn’t do anything in his own place. Our own freedom is intermingled with his own, which alone can do anything.Little by little, an identity will be put into place, a filiation will grow. Levi become a new man. Saint Ambrose says ’ Listen to me, men who are stuck to the earth! You who have thoughts inebriated by your sins. I, Levi was also wounded by similar passions? But I found a doctor who live sin heaven and who spreads remedies on earth. He alone can heal my wounds for he doesn’t have any ; he alone can take from my heart its pain and languor in my soul, for He alone knows everything that is hidden there.’
"When Jesus was at dinner in his house, a number of tax collectors and sinners were also sitting at table with Jesus and his disciples ; for there were many of them among his followers. When the scribes of the Pharisee party saw him eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples ’Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?’
What an extraordinary event, that this man Levi-Matthew should get up an follow Jesus! We take the prodigious dimension of Matthew, a man who is standing, taking possession again of a dignity having him be given over to another, God. The future is engendered in a relationship began between Jesus and Matthew. Everywhere Jesus goes, the reality become transparent! Wherever he is, shining Infinite Love of God shines forth Jesus is in the middle
of these sinners, amongst all those whose hearts are divided, and who are listening to him. He knows that the heart of mankind who is his side, there is a desire for God. It is this desire for God that he comes to take hold of and awaken. Those who are said to be sinners are God’s children. In Jesus, healed by him, they continue to walk in the world, become light of the world, salt of the earth. We know very well what Jesus’ combat is in the Cross, in order to give us life, Light and Love.
“When Jesus heard this he said to them, ’It is not the health who need the doctor, but the sick. I cam not to call the upright, but the sinners.”
This is a very consoling phrase for us, Jesus reveals in it his heart that is full of Love for all people, the sick and those in good health! only the sick recognise him. This is a combat within ourselves, one of faith, of hope for which we ought to hold firm as we are confronted to it. We know too that within ourselves the zones of darkness go into revolt, just as they revolt the Pharisees! We are so mixed up with different aspects within ourselves, and a s soon as we touch something that is mixed, the obscure part within ourselves is awoken. We are scandalised by other people without knowing that this mixture is within us all. Jesus comes to heal our divided hearts. We understand the combat for light following Jesus, for we are not better than other people. Jesus is all-powerful in his Love. He wants to be Light in us, He wants that everywhere we go we bring the Light of His Love.