Saturday of the First Week in Ordinary Time
“I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.”
This motive for his coming to earth is clearly expressed in these words of Jesus in today’s Gospel: he came to call sinners! We can even say that this is what the Church is – sinners seeking to repent and find a new life.
This has been beautifully exemplified in an early interview with Pope Francis by a journalist, Antonio Spadaro. The interviewer asks Pope Francis, “Who is Jorge Mario Bergoglio?” The pope replies: “I am a sinner whom the Lord has looked upon… (and so the pope chose the motto) Miserando atque Eligendo [By Having Mercy and by Choosing]. The pope continued: “The motto is taken from the Homilies of Bede the Venerable, who writes in his comments on the Gospel story of the calling of Matthew: “Jesus saw a publican, and since he looked at him with feelings of love and chose him, he said to him, ‘Follow me.’”
We are members of the Church because we have been called away from our sin to follow Christ, as St. Benedict says in the Prologue to his Rule: “to glory.” We can refuse this call. Or, we can heed it and follow our Blessed Lord to glory by the hard and patient work of repentance and being converted to the life he holds out to us from his gift of the Holy Spirit.
Reflection by Fr. Xavier Nacke, OSB
Posted in Articles for Ordinary Time, Daily Reflections