Today’s Gospel can be a cause for depression or a cause for inspiration. If everyone in a room was asked to raise their hand if they were a sinner, the only two who wouldn’t raise their hand would be Our Lord and the Blessed Virgin Mary. We’re all sinners and we are called to repentance and conversion, especially during Lent, because we are sinners. Levi (the apostle Matthew) was a sinner and his friends and associates were sinners. When he arranges a dinner and invites Our Lord, Our Lord knows with whom he is going to be spending time. They are exactly who he wants to meet; they are lost in darkness and need light and healing, just as Matthew does, and Our Lord wants to heal them and lead them out of their personal darkness.
The Pharisees and scribes are understandably shocked by Jesus’s behavior and associations, but he has come to guide sinners out of their darkness. Caravaggio’s depiction of the calling of St. Matthew is priceless: it seems Our Lord is lancing a ray of light into Matthew’s face, and he is starting to see things clearly for the first time. The First Reading today talks about gloom turning into light when we strive for justice and abandon sin. Our Lord turns that darkness into light for us, and that is a cause for inspiration: we don’t have to feel our way blindly out of our self-inflicted darkness alone, because Christ will be our light.
Let’s take stock today and acknowledge ourselves to be sinners before God in need of light and healing. Lent is a time for sinners to repent. Let’s reconcile with Our Lord and with others this Lent through the sacrament of Reconciliation, and invite others to do so as well.
Readings: Isaiah 58:9b–14; Psalm 86:1–6; Luke 5:27–32. See also St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist and 1st Week in Ordinary Time, Saturday.
