February 21, 2015
Saturday, After Ash Wednesday
1st Reading: Is 58:9b–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.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the
Assimilated Life
Experience)
Sinfulness does not disqualify one from the list of God’s prospects. Levi was a great sinner, a public one at that because he was an agent of a tax collection system that was laden with corruption. Still Jesus called him – an election wrongly perceived as condonation of his public sins. Filled with gratitude, Levi organized not just a simple party but a great feast.
In his Gospel, Luke portrays God’s desire to be intimately united with his people by way of a meal. The great feast thrown by Levi for Jesus measured the greatness of his desire to be intimately united with his Master. It was his response to Jesus’ unconditional acceptance. Levi’s gratitude for Jesus’ unconditional acceptance led him to total self surrender and commitment to cooperate with God’s plan.
Despite his great sin, God called Levi. When he made up his mind to respond positively to the call, the gravity of his sin failed to weigh him down. He surrendered himself totally to Jesus. The Pharisees protested Jesus’ lax admission policy. Upon confrontation, however, Jesus affirmed his preferential option for repentant sinners. He said, “I call sinners, not the righteous.”
In the Lucan context, the use of the word “righteous” is ironic. The term was well applied to the Pharisees. By condemning public sinners, the Pharisees arrogated unto themselves the exclusive and original jurisdiction of God to judge humanity. By this, they committed the greater sin of self-righteousness – greater because the sin is committed directly against God.
Today’s Gospel brings us the encouraging message that not even the most serious sin can disqualify us from being in God’s priority list, and not even the strongest opposition can remove us from that list. In this season of Lent let us heed God’s call and respond to it with the generosity and gratitude of Levi who committed himself totally to God. – Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com. Website: www.frdan.org.
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