Once, there was a city that had only one hospital. It was technologically advanced, but the wealthy doctors who owned it treated only the rich and famous. The poor and unpopular were not given treatment. Then, a great doctor built a new hospital that welcomed all, especially the poor and powerless. But all the doctors in the city were already working in the first hospital. So he had to recruit and train new would-be doctors, inviting unlikely and questionable candidates: salespeople, BPO employees, school teachers, and even scammers and corrupt politicians. 

Doctors from the first hospital ridiculed him for hiring the unqualified to become doctors. However, after a year of training in his school that taught not only medicine but also how to love, his students eventually got accredited. They became the hospital that served and healed everybody. 

Jesus often calls the unqualified. Mike Viñas (mikemichaelfcv@yahoo.com)

Reflect:

In building His Kingdom, Jesus didn’t recruit the religious elite that corruptly manned the temple. He recruited and used uneducated fishermen, public sinners, and even a shady character named Matthew. 

Jesus, despite my weakness and with the little that I know and have, use me to build Your Kingdom—a spiritual hospital for the sick, sinful, and struggling. 

St. Anthony Zaccaria, priest, pray for us.

Amos preaches against the rich who oppress the poor in order to have control over their wealth. What a shortsighted thing to do as this control can only last as long as their earthly life. There is an eternal life to consider beyond that. If the rich are wise, then they will realize that maintaining wealth and power in this life will cost them eternity in the next. 

⁴ Hear this, you who trample upon the needy and destroy the poor of the land! ⁵ “When will the new moon be over,” you ask, “that we may sell our grain, and the sabbath, that we may display the wheat?” We will diminish the containers for measuring, add to the weights, and fix our scales for cheating! ⁶ We will buy the lowly man for silver, and the poor man for a pair of sandals; even the refuse of the wheat we will sell!” ⁹ On that day, says the Lord God, I will make the sun set at midday and cover the earth with darkness in broad daylight. ¹⁰ I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentations. I will cover the loins of all with sackcloth and make every head bald. I will make them mourn as for an only son, and bring their day to a bitter end. ¹¹ Yes, days are coming, says the Lord God, when I will send famine upon the land: Not a famine of bread, or thirst for water, but for hearing the word of the Lord. ¹² Then shall they wander from sea to sea and rove from the north to the east In search of the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it.

Responsorial Psalm | Psalm 119:2, 10, 20, 30, 40, 131

R: One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

² Blessed are they who observe his decrees, who seek him with all their heart. (R) ¹⁰ With all my heart I seek you; let me not stray from your commands. (R) ²⁰ My soul is consumed with longing for your ordinances at all times. (R) ³⁰ The way of truth I have chosen; I have set your ordinances before me. (R) ⁴⁰ Behold, I long for your precepts; in your justice give me life. (R) ¹³¹ I gasp with open mouth in my yearning for your commands. (R)

Gospel | Matthew 9:9-13

Matthew is a tax collector, belonging to one of the most despised groups in Israel. Jesus’ choice to call him as one of His Apostles is a lesson for us to recognize the power of the Gospel and to never underestimate what God can do in a person’s life. Jesus does not care what the wisdom of the world might say about someone; He looks deeper into the character of the individual and draws the best out of us. 

Gospel Acclamation

Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest, says the Lord.

⁹ As Jesus passed by, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post. He said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him. ¹⁰ While he was at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat with Jesus and his disciples. ¹¹ The Pharisees saw this and said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” ¹² He heard this and said, “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. ¹³ Go and learn the meaning of the words, I desire mercy, not sacrifice. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.”

Read the Bible in one year! Read JOB 34 - 37 today.

In one of our pilgrimages to churches in Europe, our group came across an interesting painting that interprets the call of the tax collector Matthew. Everything and everyone is rendered in darkness, and Jesus stands out as one with a lighted countenance. Light shines from His back, illuminating everything.

Matthew could have been a tax collector for a long time. His work for the Roman Empire could have given him a good remuneration, but it could have turned to be a dull daily routine for him. He may have been feeling sick of waking up and doing the same thing every day—sitting in his post and listening to the same woes of people from whom he needed to collect dues. Life had become a drudgery. Hence, when Jesus came and said to him, “Follow Me,” he simply got up and followed. Change with Jesus was liberating.

Through all these years, one ministry I did was celebrating the Eucharist at noontime breaks in various workplaces, especially in Makati. Several times, people shared that the noontime Mass was one thing they looked forward to in order to break the monotony of their daily work for so many years. A good number of them are making a countdown: how many more years will they have to spend doing the same work daily until their retirement.

This is said to be part of the curse of Adam’s sin—our need to toil each day. Work and life become increasingly a burden that we need to put up with. It is, therefore, not at all surprising that we try to make the best of every possible “diversion.”

Spirituality, prayer, fellowship, outreach, and various faith activities are then not forms of leisure. They are needed for balance, for sanity—and for sanctity. Through them, Jesus says to us: “Follow Me.” Fr. Domie Guzman, SSP

Reflection Question:

How do you sustain your sanity and balance through all of life’s challenges?

You can make the ordinary extraordinary, Lord. Help me to see every day as special. Amen.

Today, I pray for: __________________________________