Saturday February 20

SATURDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY

 

RE-CREATING ENCOUNTER  

 

Introduction

      Jesus came to call sinners. It is they that need him, not so much the just, the righteous. It is the sinners who need healing. We are among them, and so we need healing. The Pharisees considered themselves just, but there was little mercy in them; their hearts were dried-up, and it is mercy that Jesus wants, not sacrifices. Jesus comes to encounter Levi-Matthew. Just a call, and Matthew leaves everything behind: his desk, his past. He is a new man, created anew by Christ. He lives now for the future. His converted heart will turn to others too, as he becomes an apostle. In this eucharist Jesus comes to call us and to change us; he sits at table with us, as he did with Levi-Matthew.

 

Opening Prayer

Lord our God, merciful Father,
when you call us to repentance,
you want us to turn to people
and to build up peace and justice among us all.
According to your promise,
let us become, with your strength,
lights for those in darkness,
water for those who thirst,
rebuilders of hope and happiness for all.
May we thus become living signs
of your love and loyalty,
for you are our God for ever.

 

Reading 1: Is 58:9B-14

Thus says the LORD:
If you remove from your midst oppression,
false accusation and malicious speech;
If you bestow your bread on the hungry
and satisfy the afflicted;
Then light shall rise for you in the darkness,
and the gloom shall become for you like midday;
Then the LORD will guide you always
and give you plenty even on the parched land.
He will renew your strength,
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring whose water never fails.
The ancient ruins shall be rebuilt for your sake,
and the foundations from ages past you shall raise up;
“Repairer of the breach,” they shall call you,
“Restorer of ruined homesteads.”

If you hold back your foot on the sabbath
from following your own pursuits on my holy day;
If you call the sabbath a delight,
and the LORD’s holy day honorable;
If you honor it by not following your ways,
seeking your own interests, or speaking with maliceB
Then you shall delight in the LORD,
and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth;
I will nourish you with the heritage of Jacob, your father,
for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

 

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 86:1-2, 3-4, 5-6

R. (11ab) Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth.
Incline your ear, O LORD; answer me,
for I am afflicted and poor.
Keep my life, for I am devoted to you;
save your servant who trusts in you.
You are my God.
R. Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth.

Have mercy on me, O Lord,
for to you I call all the day.
Gladden the soul of your servant,
for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
R. Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth.

For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving,
abounding in kindness to all who call upon you.
Hearken, O LORD, to my prayer
and attend to the sound of my pleading.
R. Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth.

 

Verse before the Gospel: Ez 33:11

I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked man, says the Lord,
but rather in his conversion, that he may live.

 

Gospel: Lk 5:27-32

Jesus saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the customs post.
He said to him, “Follow me.”
And leaving everything behind, he got up and followed him.
Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house,
and a large crowd of tax collectors
and others were at table with them.
The Pharisees and their scribes complained to his disciples, saying,
“Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
Jesus said to them in reply,
“Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do.
I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners.”

 

Intercessions

–         That Christians may experience the joy of receiving forgiveness from God and from forgiving one another, we pray:

–         That people entangled in sin and who don’t know how to get out, may encounter Jesus, who came as a healer of hearts, we pray:

–         That we may all learn that it is a part of our conversion to turn to people and to bring them justice and love, we pray:

 

Prayer over the Gifts

Merciful God,
you have sent your Son among us
to eat and drink with us sinners.
May Jesus look also at us intently
and call us to genuine repentance,
and may we be so humble as to recognize
that we are in need of conversion.
Give us the strength to follow Jesus,
who is our Lord for ever.

 

Prayer after Communion

Lord God, merciful Father,
your Son Jesus Christ has touched our hearts
and we are willing to follow him.
But we are weak and frail,
and so we pray you:
May the bread of life and the wine of strength,
which we have taken at the table of your Son,
sustain us on the road to you,
our God for ever.

 

Blessing

Through Jesus, God creates people anew by forgiving them. He makes an apostle out of a typical sinner, Matthew, the tax collector. As forgiven people, we help God to restore people by our goodness, by helping others. May almighty God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

 

Commentary

During the Jubilee year of mercy, Pope Francis launched a book with the title ‘The Name of God is Mercy’. The book was a result of an interview with Pope Francis by an Italian journalist. In the interview, the Pope talked about the logic of God which is nothing but a logic of love that scandalises the pharisees and the teachers of the Law.
God’s logic of love is reflected in everything that Jesus says and does. Jesus reveals a God who doesn’t wait for us to be perfect or blameless before engaging with us. Jesus engaged with people as they were, in all their frailty and weakness. That is how the Lord engages with each one of us.

Jesus scandalizes the doctors of the Law, the scribes of the Pharisees, by sharing table with people who were considered sinners by the society. Sharing the table or having a meal together meant, accepting one another as belonging to the family or friends. We share the meal with people who are close to us – our family or friends. In sharing table with tax collectors and sinners Jesus was showing that God wants to be in communion with us just as we are. It is that experience of God’s loving communion with us that will empower us to become the person God wants me to be and to live the life God calls me to live.

In this season of Lent, the Church offers the call of Levi as an invitation for us to look into our lives to see how merciful and empathetic are we in our life in the Church community, in the society and in our families. Do we look at our brothers or sisters and label them as outcasts and sinners and reject them from our circles? The Lenten fasting calls on us to fast from spreading rumours that label people as bad, fast from gossiping and instead nurture the virtue of empathy mercy and love. Remember, the people who regarded themselves as the insiders – chosen people of God – the Pharisees and teachers of the Law – had become the outsiders; while the so called outcasts – the sinners and tax collectors – became the insiders who had the privilege to dine with Jesus. On which side are you?