Daily Gospel Reflection
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February 20, 2021
Jesus saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the customs post.
He said to him, “Follow me.”
And leaving everything behind, he got up and followed him.
Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house,
and a large crowd of tax collectors
and others were at table with them.
The Pharisees and their scribes complained to his disciples, saying,
“Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
Jesus said to them in reply,
“Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do.
I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners.”
There is a prescription that we cannot pick up at CVS or Walgreens: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.
In today’s gospel, Jesus tells us: “Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do. I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners.” This is a perfect reminder for these early days of Lent. This season of preparation is a time for us to recall that we are all sinners. Who can say that they are without sin? And if we have sin, we are the people Jesus calls to repentance. We are the ones in need of a physician.
The Lenten prescription of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving is not about making us feel bad about ourselves, it is about making us more aware of ourselves. Our spiritual practices help us recognize not only our sinfulness but also help us realize how we can draw closer to God.
My grandfather was a physician and, when I was young, he would write out little prescriptions for me on a pad of scrap paper. “Apologize to your sister,” or “Please pick up your toys before supper,” for example. These little notes were always so fun and warm, but they pointed me in the right direction. This is like Jesus in his call to repentance for the sinners of his own day. He doesn’t approach them with fiery judgment, he shares a table with them, enters into a relationship with them, and then calls them to repentance. Do we believe that he will do the same for us?
Prayer
Lord, you knew each of us before the foundation of the world and called us each by name. Free us from narrow, prejudicial thinking, attitudes and actions. We are all sinners. Inspire us to humbly serve You and all your creation. We ask this through Christ our Brother Amen.
Saint of the Day
Francisco and Jacinta Marto were siblings who lived near Fatima, Portugal, and received the famous visions of Our Lady there.
On May 13, 1917, they were tending sheep with their cousin, Lucia Santos, when they received the first of six visions of Mary. Francisco was 9 years old, and Jacinta was 7, at the time of the apparition.
Mary gave the children three secrets, studied and approved by the Church, in which she spoke of the coming world war and of the conversion of Russia. Reports of the apparition drew controversy and attention world-wide, and Fatima became a shrine and pilgrimage site.
The children were instructed to pray for the conversion of sinners, and after the visions they all took on mortifications such as fasting and wearing tight cords around their waists.
Francisco was thoughtful and quiet and preferred to pray alone. Jacinta was affectionate and had a sweet singing voice. In 1918, the two were struck with the Spanish Flu epidemic that soon took their lives. During their months of illness, they insisted on walking to church for Mass and Eucharistic devotions. They would also kneel and pray for hours with their heads on the ground, according to instructions they received in their vision.
Francisco declined hospital treatment and died on April 4, 1919, at the age of 10. Jacinta was taken several places for treatment, including a surgery without anesthesia.
Jacinta devoted the pain of her illness to the conversion of sinners, and she finally died on this date in 1920.
They are both buried at the Our Lady of Fatima Basilica in Portugal and were canonized in 2017. (When they were beatified in 2000, Jacinta was the youngest child to be beatified who was not martyred.)
Statues of Francisco and Jacinta kneeling before Our Lady of Fatima stand in front of what used to be the Fatima Retreat House across the lake from campus. The retreat house is now a residence for Holy Cross religious.
To learn even more about Saints Francisco and Jacinta Marto, watch this video lecture from the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame.
Saints Francisco and Jacinta Marto, you saw Mary at Fatima and prayed for our conversion—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of Sts. Francisco and Jacinta Marto is in the public domain. Last accessed December 6, 2024 on Wikimedia Commons.
