VATICAN CITY (CNS) — God went looking for and chose many Christians and saints from the dregs of society, inviting some of the worst sinners to be his disciples, Pope Francis said in his morning homily in the Domus Sanctae Marthae Sept. 21, the feast of St. Matthew.
It would be easy to think, he said, that Jesus “doesn’t have good judgment in choosing people” given that he chose so many people from “the most despised place” a person could be from at the time. That is because Jesus does not come to call the righteous, but the sinners, because “those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do,” the pope said, quoting from the day’s Gospel reading during Mass on the feast of St. Matthew.
The feast day has great significance for the pope, who, as a 17-year-old boy, strongly felt God’s presence and mercy that day, inspiring him to religious life.
His episcopal and papal motto – “Because he saw him through the eyes of mercy and chose him” – is based on the account of Jesus seeing Matthew, a sinner and tax collector, and calling him to “Follow me.”
Focusing on the day’s Gospel passage (Mt 9:9-13), the pope said people must remember who they were when God called them to become Christian and always keep fresh in their minds “the memory of our sins, the memory that the Lord had mercy on my sins and he chose me to be Christian, to be an apostle.”
In the Gospel passage, the pope noted, the Pharisees are scandalized when they see Jesus and his disciples eat with tax collectors and sinners, thinking that being close to such “impure” people “infects you” with impurity, too.
But Jesus tells them, “Go and learn the meaning of the words, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’” which means, the pope said, “God’s mercy seeks everyone, forgives everyone. He only asks you to say, ‘Yes, help me.’ Only that.”
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