Daily Mass Reading & Meditation for Saturday, 8 March 2014 - Catholic Meditations

Daily Mass Reading & Meditation for Saturday, 8 March 2014 - Catholic Meditations

Meditations: Luke 5: 27 After these things he went out, and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax office, and said to him, “Follow me!”

28 He left everything, and rose up and followed him. 29 Levi made a great feast for him in his house. There was a great crowd of tax collectors and others who were reclining with them. 30 Their scribes and the Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?” 31 Jesus answered them, “Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick do. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Saint John of God, Religious

Follow me. (Luke 5:27)

As a government employee, Levi probably had a very comfortable life. But then he heard Jesus, and his heart was stirred so powerfully that he was willing to part with his old life and become a follower of this traveling preacher from Nazareth.

You might think that this would be the perfect way to end the story: hardened tax collector embraces a kinder, simpler life. But Levi encountered a new wrinkle when some Pharisees disrupt the special dinner that he gave in Jesus’ honor. They objected to Jesus spending time with Levi’s sordid group of friends. Shouldn’t a spiritual leader avoid the sinful so as not to risk contamination?

Then, as if to add insult to injury, Jesus agrees with the Pharisees by likening Levi and his friends to the “sick” in need of a physician. That’s right—sick! How would you respond if everyone were talking about you like this? Wouldn’t you get just a bit defensive? You can imagine Levi—whom we also know as St. Matthew—responding, “Wait a minute! It’s not like I’m the walking plague! If Jesus wants to spend time with me and my friends, that’s his business.”

But that’s not how Levi reacted. The fact that he stayed with Jesus and became one of his twelve apostles is a testament to his humility and his dedication.

In a wide-ranging interview last September, Pope Francis likened the Church to a “field hospital” for the faithful—not just for those who don’t believe but for all of us. It’s hard to think of ourselves as being sick and needing help. But that’s what the season of Lent—that’s what the cross—is all about. As St. Paul wrote, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Of these I am the foremost” (1 Timothy 1:15). If we can bring ourselves to echo Paul’s words, if we can find the humility and dedication of Levi, we’ll end up finding the same joy, peace, and freedom that they both discovered. And our Easter celebration will become that much sweeter!

“Lord, there are so many ways that I try to say I don’t need you, but you know what is truly in my heart. Lord, I do need you. Come with the medicine of your mercy so that I can know your grace and presence!” Amen!

Isaiah 58: 9 Then you will call, and Yahweh will answer;

    you will cry for help, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’

“If you take away from among you the yoke,

    finger pointing,

    and speaking wickedly;

10 and if you pour out your soul to the hungry,

    and satisfy the afflicted soul:

then your light will rise in darkness,

    and your obscurity will be as the noonday;

11 and Yahweh will guide you continually,

    and satisfy your soul in dry places,

    and make your bones strong;

and you shall be like a watered garden,

    and like a spring of water,

    whose waters don’t fail.

12 Those who shall be of you shall build the old waste places;

    you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;

and you shall be called Repairer of the Breach,

    Restorer of Paths with Dwellings.

13 “If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath,

    from doing your pleasure on my holy day;

and call the Sabbath a delight,

    and the holy of Yahweh honorable;

    and shall honor it,

    not doing your own ways,

    nor finding your own pleasure,

    nor speaking your own words:

14 then you shall delight yourself in Yahweh;

    and I will make you to ride on the high places of the earth;

    and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father:”

    for Yahweh’s mouth has spoken it.

Psalm 86: A Prayer by David.

1 Hear, Yahweh, and answer me,

    for I am poor and needy.

2 Preserve my soul, for I am godly.

    You, my God, save your servant who trusts in you.

3 Be merciful to me, Lord,

    for I call to you all day long.

4 Bring joy to the soul of your servant,

    for to you, Lord, do I lift up my soul.

5 For you, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive;

    abundant in loving kindness to all those who call on you.

6 Hear, Yahweh, my prayer.

    Listen to the voice of my petitions.

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