Prayer Prompt before reading MK 2:13-17: Come, Holy Spirit, teach me how to pray well, interpret the Scriptures for me so that I may know the Truth about who God the Father is and who God the Son is so that I may know who I am.
“I DID NOT COME TO CALL THE RIGHTEOUS BUT SINNERS.” MK 2:13-17
Humbly submit your will to God (thy Will be done) and consecrate yourself to the Sacred Heart of Jesus through Mary and Joseph.
Today, Jesus reminds us the reason he was Anointed, or His mission (the Catholic Church’s today/ours), to save us from sin. Which one of us is not a sinner? We are all in the same category in God’s eyes. His love and mercy are infinite.
Those who are baptized are Christified, repent and try to change their life by dying to self/our ego and putting on Christ each day. Jesus reminds us in the Gospel today that “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners”.
No matter how many bad decisions we make or times we sin, God is the Father of the story in the Prodigal Son. How can we allow this love and mercy to stop with us? We are called to go to the face of Jesus and to those who have made the worst mistakes and give them hope.
Pope Francis’s main mission as pope has been to get the Catholic Church back into the streets where Jesus started it. ”I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been on the streets rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security”. When is the last time you have seen the face of Jesus Christ in the homeless? More importantly, when is the last time you forgave someone in your home?
Jesus is calling you to “follow me” into the streets to the least of the people among us. It starts by helping those in our homes and parishes, but extends to those in our community. There is such a need. Jesus ate with public sinners like tax collectors and prostitutes, cured the lepers who were banned from the towns, the orphans and widows, those possessed by demons, the drunks, those who lived in the cycle of poverty, and the rich who do not give. It is time to get uncomfortable for Christ. Die to self, put on Christ and experience joy like you never have before.
Today’s challenge: Find the hardest, dirtiest, worst section of your Stewardship form and sign up. Get out there and start helping those who are in need the most as Christ has done for you as a sinner. If you are having a bad day, stop what you are doing and go help somebody. It always lifts your Spirit!
Be a servant, become a saint!
Christian YODO (You Only Die Once; we will live again!)
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