Word to the Wise
Saturday, January 16, 2010 - Saturday in the First Week in Ordinary Time
[1 Samuel 9:1-4, 17-19; 10:1 and Mark 2:13-17]"Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?" Jesus heard this and said to them, "Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners."
Every religion has its "super-devout" folks who are convinced of their righteousness because they are meticulous about physical observance of all ceremonial precepts or other rules. The problem with this attitude is that they believe that it is this observance that makes them righteous, which is not the case at all! What makes them "righteous" is what is going on inside them or anyone else! If this meticulous observance leads them to be judgmental about others who are not so meticulous, then their so-called "righteousness" is corrupted! This was the situation of some of the scribes and Pharisees who could not understand why Jesus was not as meticulous as they were about keeping the behavioral precepts of the Mosaic Law in regard to ritual cleanliness. Tax collectors were unclean because they worked for the Roman government, handled Roman money and had to deal with other "sinners" who might be called such because they worked in certain occupations that brought them into contact with "unclean" objects or people! I am reminded of a tour guide on a bus in Mexico who said: "As to religion here, we are all Catholics. We may not be very good Catholics, but we are all Catholics!" In my many years as a campus minister, I often found myself associating with Catholics who were not very good Catholics. If I were to avoid them so as not to "scandalize" the "righteous" I would have had to shut down a good part of my ministry! Am I to see "sinners" ONLY in the confessional? Is that the only place where God's love and mercy are to be found? If that love and mercy were to be more obviously found in more people, I think there would be considerably less cause to worry about "tax collectors and sinners." The helping hand is far more welcome than the one with a gavel in it. AMEN
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