Is There a Doctor in the House?

Luke 5:27-32

In today's Gospel, Luke recalls the scene where Levi, the tax collector, responds to Jesus' call. Levi drops everything, leaves his post and follows Jesus. Thinking in terms of the circumstances of our own day, this scenario is hard to imagine.

But taking the entire episode at its face (without really even examining what in the world Levi must have been experiencing in the exchange) we see something that the religious of the time could not understand. Jesus was not seeking out those who were righteous. He was reaching out to those who were perceived the dregs of their society. The guys you love to hate: the tax collectors. (Lenten restraint prevents me from making a bad IRS joke.)

Later in this passage, we are told of the gathering and dinner Levi hosts where Jesus is the guest of honor among a group of other tax collectors-- some of the society most notorious sinners.

What is going on here?

We must remember who Jesus is-- God. We must remember His job-- to proclaim the Truth about our destiny as man. Jesus uses the analogy of the patient-doctor relationship. This is a simple one to understand. Jesus reached out to the sick-- in this case, the spiritually sick.

This story says something beautiful about all of us. Whether we are believers or not, there is something inside each of us that knows that there is something missing in all of us. We may not always sense it. But, I think if we are honest with ourselves, we can point to episodes in our lives where we have felt a void.

The lesson today is that God makes house calls. We just have to recognize our symptoms and be honest enough with ourselves to tell the doctor the truth-- regardless of our fear of treatment.

Keeping Secrets

Ash Wednesday

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18

Welcome to Lent. Sounds like an odd greeting, but I mean it. The secret is out. I love Lent. I love it because I am the kind of person who is willing to admit that she needs structure and ritual. It makes me feel calm and secure. If you are Catholic, you may likely understand.

Today is the day that we are reminded of the truth about life. The ashes on our forehead remind us of the human condition affected by sin. Easy enough to understand, but is it? Today we live in a world that everyday denies that sin even exists.

In the imposition of ashes, today, we are admitting our guilt before God and expressing our desire for inward conversion. This sign is the first step in our journey of conversion. It takes us to the sacrament of reconciliation, then to the Passion and then to salvation in the Resurrection at Easter.

This is what we must remember.

We are made up of two substances. A body and a soul. It is no secret that our bodies die. But what is often difficult to remember or understand is that our soul (the invisible part of us that animates our bodies) is wounded when we sin.

During Lent, we are offered a beautiful prescription. We learn from today's reading that what our souls need is to pray, to fast, and to give alms. But the key is that we must do these three things in secret.

Why is secret? When these three things (prayer, fasting and almsgiving) are done in secret, it is God who sees your true intentions. These offerings are done in communion with God, alone. This is because it is God who heals the soul.