The gospel for Saturday, the first week in Ordinary Time, is taken from St. Mark second chapter 1317. Jesus went out along the sea. All the crowds came to him, and he taught them. As he passed by, he saw Levi, son of Alphaeus, sitting at the customs post. Jesus said to him, follow me.

And he got up and followed Jesus while he was at table in his house. Many tax collectors and sinners sat with Jesus and his disciples. But there were many who followed him. Some scribes who were Pharisees saw that Jesus was eating with sinners and tax collectors and said to his disciples, why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners? Jesus heard this and said to them, those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.

The righteous were the people who followed the law perfectly, knowing that if they follow the law of the temple, they would be blessed. There was a kind of earning salvation, earning favor from God. And what is so beautiful about this is that God is not interested in you winning favor from Him. He’s only interested in doing the work that he longs to do, and that’s to transform us and to heal us. He’s like a doctor. And what he wants so much is for us to recognize our dis, ease our darkness, our fear, our shame, our anger, and come to him as we would to a physician and say, help me.

Heal me. God is a healer, and he’s not interested in anyone trying to earn his favorite. He just wants to change us. Foreign. Closing PRAYER Father, this image has always been such a beautiful way of understanding who you really are. Bless us all with that awareness, your compassion, your understanding, your desire to be the healing force that we all long for and to bring us into a healthy relationship with ourselves and our neighbors and you.

Thank you for this gift. Help us to be aware of it. And we ask this in Jesus name, amen.