Saturday of the First Week in Ordinary Time
January 15, 2022
Daily Reading from the USCCB: Mark 2:13-17
The tension between Jesus and the Jewish religious leaders grew greater when Jesus started to enroll inappropriate people among his followers.
One such was Levi–also known as Matthew. He was a tax collector whose profession made him unclean and contemptible to any self-respecting Jew. To make things worse, Jesus began to socialize with Levi’s friends–that is with other tax collectors and sinners of various types. When Jesus was asked to explain himself, he responded simply, “They need me.”
All of us who share the Christian faith have been called by Christ as Levi was. It’s not because of our virtues, nor because of what we have to offer to the Lord. It’s because the Lord loves us and because we need him.
