22 September 2016
Thursday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time
Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel, “I have come to call sinners.” That means he comes to me as I am and where I am. Example: He called Matthew, a tax collector, “at his post where taxes were collected.” He said to him simply, “Follow me.” Matthew did and his whole life was changed.
So what is the lesson here for me? To encounter Jesus I must be open to his call. It is not a call that comes once or twice in my lifetime, but at every moment of the day. It is the call to discern his Father’s will for me, to listen to Jesus’ personal call to me: ”Come follow me.”
It is much easier for me to exercise exterior religious acts – go to Mass, say a rosary – than it is to hear the voice of him who calls me to holiness, to a heart to heart conversion, to be opened to his mercy, to accept his invitation to transform my life.
It may also be a call to follow him on the way to Calvary, and if so, to remind myself I shall not be alone. Mary is always with him beneath the cross. Let us be with her as well.