While he was coming from Capernaum, Jesus saw a tax collector by the name of Matthew seated at the customs post. Matthew had a job that made him despised by the people, for it placed him in the same category as the loan sharks and those who took advantage of others to amass wealth for themselves. The Scribes and Pharisees put him on the same level as the public sinners, and criticized Jesus for being “a friend of tax collectors and sinners” and of eating together with them (Mt 11:19; 9:10).
Jesus, going against all social conventions, called Matthew to follow him and accepted his invitation to dine at his home, as he later would also do with Zaccheus, the head of the tax collectors in Jericho. When questioned about his behavior, Jesus responded that he had come to heal the sick, not the healthy, and to call not the righteous, but sinners. His invitation, also this time, was addressed directly to one of them:
“The Lord supports all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down.”
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“We need to feel that we are in the arms of a Father
who loves us as we are and for whom everything is
possible.”
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| Jesus had already said these words to Andrew, Peter, James and John on the shore of the lake. He made the same invitation, using different words, to Paul on the road to Damascus.
But Jesus did not stop there; down through the centuries he has continued to call men and women of every culture and nation. He still does it today; he passes by in our lives, he meets us in quite different places and in different ways, and he makes us feel anew that invitation to follow him.
He calls us to be with him because he wants to build a personal relationship with us, and at the same time he invites us to collaborate with him in his great plan to renew humanity.
Jesus does not care about our weaknesses, our sins and our limitations. He loves us and chooses us just as we are. His love will then transform us and give us the strength to answer his call and the courage to follow him as Matthew did.
He has a particular love for each one of us, a plan for each person’s life, an individual call. We can feel it in our hearts through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, through certain circumstances, or through a piece of advice from someone who cares about us. Even if manifested in different ways, his message spells out the same words: .
“The Lord supports all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down.”
I remember when I, too, felt a call from God. It was a very cold winter morning in Trent, Italy. My mother asked my younger sister to go and pick up some milk at a place about a mile away from home. Since it was so cold she did not feel like going. My other sister also refused to go. “I’ll go, Mom,” I said, and I picked up the bottle and left the house. Halfway there something peculiar happened. It seemed as though the skies opened up and God reached me with his invitation to follow him. “Give all of yourself to me,” I felt him say in my heart.
It was a clear call that I wanted to answer right away. I spoke with my spiritual advisor about it and he gave me permission to give my life to God forever. It was December 7, 1943. It’s impossible to fully convey what I felt in my heart that day—I had married God. I could expect everything from him.
“The Lord supports all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down .”
Strengthened by this certainty, we can then entrust every worry to him, every problem, as Scripture invites us to do: “Cast all your worries upon him because he cares for you” (1 Pt 5:7).
At the beginning of the Movement, when the Holy Spirit was encouraging us to take our first steps in the way of love, “cast all your worries onto the Father” became a daily exercise for us, one that was frequently repeated during the day.
I remember that I used to say that it’s impossible to hold a burning coal in your hand. You have to immediately get rid of it. With that same quickness, you should cast every worry onto God. I can’t recall any worry that I entrusted to him that he did not take care of.
Of course, it’s not always easy to believe and to believe in his love, but let’s make the effort throughout this month to do so in every instance, even in the most complicated situations. We will witness, time after time, God’s intervention and how he does not forget us, rather he takes care of us. We will experience a power not known before that will release in us new and unimaginable resources.
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