Follow Me

 

  Lk 5:27-32

Jesus Calls Levi and Eats With Sinners

²⁷ After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, ²⁸ and Levi got up, left everything and followed him.

²⁹ Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. ³⁰ But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”

³¹ Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. ³² I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

With two simple but challenging words, Jesus changes Levi's (Matthew's) life and provides us with the writer of one of the four Gospels who has preserved many of his words and deeds that have inspired countless followers for two centuries. As we proceed with our Lenten observances, do we hear Jesus saying to us, "Follow me"?  The invitation/command was not just to Matthew, but resonates through the centuries  to us.  May we listen carefully during our Lenten prayer and reflection to hear this call, and, like Levi, leave everything to heed it.

Bro. Rene

Dear Jesus, open my ears and heart to hear your call and grant me the grace to answer it with the decisiveness of Levi. Amen.