GOSPEL

It is not the healthy who need the doctor, but the sick

Matthew 9:9-13

As Jesus was walking on, he saw a man named Matthew sitting by the customs house, and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he got up and followed him.
  While he was at dinner in the house it happened that a number of tax collectors and sinners came to sit at the table with Jesus and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, ‘Why does your master eat with tax collectors and sinners?’ When he heard this he replied, ‘It is not the healthy who need the doctor, but the sick. Go and learn the meaning of the words: What I want is mercy, not sacrifice. And indeed I did not come to call the virtuous, but sinners.’

The Gospel of the Lord.

Creative Strength

You, Lord, are able to see in me more than others can. Where others find reasons for judgement and condemnation, You search deep to uncover something valuable within me. I want to look at my husband in the same way. Teach me, Lord, to see him like this. It seems very difficult to me, as I lack purity of heart, but I trust that You can help me find the best perspective within.

Applied to Married Life:

James: Saint John Paul II says in his catechesis that “the husband attentively observes his wife with a creator’s loving concern, seeking all that is good and beautiful in her and desiring it for her.” Reading that filled me with hope.
Martha: And why is that?
James: Because I believe that the Lord has instilled in me a creative strength capable of building with my love what you may lack in becoming the perfect wife.
Martha: That’s beautiful. Thank you.

Mother,

We offer that creative strength of beauty.