Friday Morning Connection from Father Pat (email still down)

Today is Friday, July 6, 2012.

Good Morning.

A thought for the day:
"If you don't need me, well, I came only for sinners anyhow."


The Church’s Gospel text for today: Matthew chapter 9 verses 9-13
… read this first if you can …


In our Scripture this morning we hear the question: "Why does Jesus eat with sinners?" The Pharisees first asked the question, but in a sense they speak for all of us. "Is Christ unaware of what He is doing? Doesn't it mean anything that there are decent people with whom He can associate? His judgment and sense of values must be all wrong."

The only answer to our question is that God deals with people as they are - sinners. We know from Scripture that God got used to this quite early in the world's history, beginning with Adam and Eve. God never argues the point. It is only sinful human beings who pretend to be startled by their own sinfulness. God takes it for granted. So much for granted, in fact, that God designed the key event in all of history to center on this - the Tree, the Cross.

When the Pharisees, or we, protest the kind of company Christ keeps, He doesn't bother to argue. He hardly takes time out from His next bite of food and, in a kind of off-the-shoulder remark, says, "Those who are well do not need a physician, but only those who are sick."

Christ's eating with Matthew and his friends was not just an experiment in public relations. It was no integration gimmick. It was not something artificial. For Him, it was a way of life. After all, He speaks with you, doesn’t He?


God bless,
Father Pat