Daily Reflections ...

The method that Jesus used to choose his disciples, and some of the choices he made, I find quite intriguing. He spent all night in prayer before making the decision about who would be his apostles, and still he chose people like Peter who clearly had doubts and faults. And in today’s reading Jesus calls a tax collector to follow him. Tax collectors were hardly like to win friends and influence people, so what was he thinking?

It seems to me that Jesus chose those who could relate to sinners – the sick in need of a physician – and to whom sinners in turn could relate because they knew what it was like to accept that they needed to repent and change their ways. This was the opposite of the strategy that the Pharisees used, which was to model a pious, righteous lifestyle and look down in judgment on those who could not, or would not, emulate them.

The other amazing aspect of today’s reading is the fact that Matthew responded immediately to Jesus’ instruction “Follow me”.  What on earth would make someone immediately walk away from the life they were leading – not one of prestige certainly, but definitely lucrative? But that’s just it, isn’t it? It wasn’t anything on earth but rather the glimpse of the loving face of God that Matthew and others saw in Jesus that made them turn their lives around.

Let us pray that we too might show the loving face of God to others, especially those most in need of God’s mercy and acceptance.

by Elizabeth Harrington