Bible Reading Luke 5: 27 ? 32
27 After this he went out and saw a tax-collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, ?Follow me.? 28And he got up, left everything, and followed him. 29 Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house; and there was a large crowd of tax-collectors and others sitting at the table* with them. 30The Pharisees and their scribes were complaining to his disciples, saying, ?Why do you eat and drink with tax-collectors and sinners?? 31Jesus answered, ?Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; 32I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance.?
Reflection
Pope Benedict XVI wrote recently: ?We have come to believe in God?s love: in these words the Christian can express the fundamental decision of his life. Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.?
Ask most Christians how they came to faith and they will bear this out. Relationships with others or that one special moment when we experience the love of God, helps form the way in which we understand our faith and practice it.
Jesus understood this and spent his life building relationships amongst all sorts of people. He did so because he knew he was called to show people, many of whom were spiritually in great need, a new way of living. What he gave to people was a new life that called them to be ?the people of God?, in community, together. A life that embraced new ways of living and set aside old ways; that showed even those who had committed the most terrible of crimes or lived the most terrible of lives that they were not alone and that every part of them was loved and cherished by God.
Love the Lord your God, and love your neighbour as yourself ? a simple way to live .
Thought for the Day
?If our foundation of radical commitment is love for God and others, we live as God would have us live. And if we practice the disciplines in order to deepen our love for God and others, we live as God would have us live. Discipleship is not so much about radical commitment as it is about radical love, and the disciplines are not so much about spiritual formation as about love formation.?
Scott McKnight ?Lecturer in Religious Studies, North Park University Chicago. 2004
Prayer
Merciful Father, fill our hearts with your love and keep us faithful to the gospel of Christ. Give us the grace to rise above our human weakness. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen
27 After this he went out and saw a tax-collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, ?Follow me.? 28And he got up, left everything, and followed him. 29 Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house; and there was a large crowd of tax-collectors and others sitting at the table* with them. 30The Pharisees and their scribes were complaining to his disciples, saying, ?Why do you eat and drink with tax-collectors and sinners?? 31Jesus answered, ?Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; 32I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance.?
Reflection
Pope Benedict XVI wrote recently: ?We have come to believe in God?s love: in these words the Christian can express the fundamental decision of his life. Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.?
Ask most Christians how they came to faith and they will bear this out. Relationships with others or that one special moment when we experience the love of God, helps form the way in which we understand our faith and practice it.
Jesus understood this and spent his life building relationships amongst all sorts of people. He did so because he knew he was called to show people, many of whom were spiritually in great need, a new way of living. What he gave to people was a new life that called them to be ?the people of God?, in community, together. A life that embraced new ways of living and set aside old ways; that showed even those who had committed the most terrible of crimes or lived the most terrible of lives that they were not alone and that every part of them was loved and cherished by God.
Love the Lord your God, and love your neighbour as yourself ? a simple way to live .
Thought for the Day
?If our foundation of radical commitment is love for God and others, we live as God would have us live. And if we practice the disciplines in order to deepen our love for God and others, we live as God would have us live. Discipleship is not so much about radical commitment as it is about radical love, and the disciplines are not so much about spiritual formation as about love formation.?
Scott McKnight ?Lecturer in Religious Studies, North Park University Chicago. 2004
Prayer
Merciful Father, fill our hearts with your love and keep us faithful to the gospel of Christ. Give us the grace to rise above our human weakness. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen
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