15 January 2022

Saturday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

The dinner guests eating with Jesus at the house of Levi, among whom are “many tax collectors and sinners,” make for interesting and even scandalous company in today’s Gospel (Mark 2:13-17). Here, eating with Jesus and his disciples, we find extortioners as well as prostitutes and Roman sympathizers—not the crowd one wants in order to build a good reputation with the religious authorities of Jesus’ time. It should be no surprise, then, that the Pharisees object to this company and question Jesus. Our Lord’s response, however, is clear and incisive: “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.”

This Gospel passage invites us to consider our own self-understanding and how that impacts our relationship to Jesus. Do I—consciously or unconsciously—consider myself “righteous” in the manner of the Pharisees, and thus close myself off from Jesus’ healing love, or do I know myself to be a “loved sinner” and run confidently to the Lord’s mercy? On this Saturday, perhaps we can exercise the latter attitude in an examination of the past week or by celebrating the sacrament of Reconciliation in preparation for the Lord’s Day.