Word to the Wise
Saturday, January 17, 2015 - Saturday in the 1st Week in Ordinary Time
[Heb 4:12-16 and Mark 2:13-17]Some scribes who were Pharisees saw that Jesus was eating with sinners and tax collectors and said to his disciples, "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." [Mark]
JANUARY 17 ST. ANTHONY, abbot [Saturday in the First Week in Ordinary time.]
One of Pope Francis' most striking images for the church is that of a "field hospital for the wounded and suffering." He contrasted this image with an organization for the "perfect." In his opening address to the Second Vatican Council, Pope Saint John XXIII, used the expression: "the medicine of mercy." These images reflect the situation in today's gospel scripture, a situation which is widely ignored in public life.
Pope Francis raised eyebrows considerably last Holy Thursday when he washed the feet not only of women but non-Christians in the group. There is a kind of attitude that sees the church as a refuge for the perfect against a hostile world. This attitude would forbid the representatives of the church from showing any mercy other than severe negative judgment for those who are trapped in sinful behavior or structures. The people with whom Jesus ate and drank might have been merely in trades that dealt with things the Mosaic law considered unclean. Of course, tax collectors were on the unclean list not just because they worked for non-Jewish authorities but because the very coins used were considered blasphemous for their image of Caesar.
To reach out in mercy to those considered "sinners" is hard for some folks. The ministry to the divorced or to gay people or other "pariahs" attracts a lot of criticism. The gospel today tells us that such criticism is nothing new. AMEN
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