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Lent - Week One 2010
By Pat Lee | February 24, 2010
Wednesday: February 24, 2010
Readings: Isaiah 58: 9-14 Luke 5: 27-32
Scripture Verse: If you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted; then light shall rise for you in the darkness Isaiah 58:10
Reflection: In today’s gospel, Jesus calls Levi, a tax collector, to become one of his followers. Levi holds a special place in our Christian tradition because he became St. Matthew. Jesus changes his name to Mattai, which means gift of God. Matthew wrote his gospel to a predominately Jewish-Christian community to lead the Jewish religious leaders (who rejected Matthew as a sinner—which he was) to Jesus.
Jesus’ call to follow him liberates us from the prejudices by which people are often classified in our culture. The religious leaders of Jesus’ time did not believe God’s forgiving love could be offered to tax collectors, foreigners and others deemed sinners. The religious elite classified these people as outcasts. Jesus, on the other hand, announces his intention to include sinners and outcasts as partners with him in his kingdom.
Jesus, in the gospels, made a sharp distinction between the self-righteous and sinners. Those who recognise themselves as sinners can receive God’s forgiveness. The self-righteous, on the other hand, believe they have earned and deserve God’s love and see no need to receive God’s forgiving love that Jesus came to offer us.
Lent reminds us to recognise ourselves as sinners. We accept Jesus’ invitation to turn from those things that seek to draw us from the love of God and to turn to God. We receive God’s forgiving, healing, renewing love, are reconciled with God and freed to follow Jesus as forgiven sinners. Prejudiced behaviour and attitudes towards others are impossible for forgiven sinners.
We pray with the psalmist: “Teach me your way, O Lord and I will walk in your truth” Psalm 58:11
Topics: Lent |