13th Week in the Ordinary Time
1st Reading: Am 8:4-6, 9-12
Hear this, you who trample upon the needy and destroy the poor of the land! “When will the new moon be over,” you ask, “that we may sell our grain, and the sabbath, that we may display the wheat?” We will diminish the containers for measuring, add to the weights, and fix our scales for cheating! We will buy the lowly man for silver, and the poor man for a pair of sandals; even the refuse of the wheat we will sell!” On that day, says the Lord GOD, I will make the sun set at midday and cover the earth with darkness in broad daylight. I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentations. I will cover the loins of all with sackcloth and make every head bald. I will make them mourn as for an only son, and bring their day to a bitter end. Yes, days are coming, says the Lord GOD, when I will send famine upon the land: Not a famine of bread, or thirst for water, but for hearing the word of the LORD. Then shall they wander from sea to sea and rove from the north to the east in search of the word of the LORD, but they shall not find it.
Gospel: Mt 9:9-13
As Jesus passed by, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post. He said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him. While he was at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat with Jesus and his disciples. The Pharisees saw this and said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” He heard this and said, “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. Go and learn the meaning of the words, I desire mercy, not sacrifice. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.”
PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE: Our God is merciful, slow to anger and rich in mercy (cf. Psalm 145: 8). Jesus called Mathew, the tax collector apparently a sinner. He saw in Mathew the longing for a bigger meaning in life. When Jesus called him, “follow me”, he followed him. The words of Jesus satisfied his search for something greater in life. “Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life; everyone must carry out a specific assignment that demands fulfilment. Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated, thus everyone’s task is unique as his specific opportunity to implement it” (Victor E. Frankl). We heard from the responsorial Psalm, “One does not live on bread alone, but by every word from the mouth of God”. Indeed, the Word of God satisfies, leads, enlightens and illumines the path of one who wishes to follow Him.
Prayer: Lord, give me the grace to respond to your invitation in my life.
DAILY GOSPEL 