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.” (Lk 5”27-32)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/021724.cfm
When I was in high school, a friend made a smart remark about the church in front of his grandmother. I never forgot her reply: “The church is not a club for saints, it’s a hospital for sinners.”
These reflections are a result of more than 40 years of ministry as a Roman Catholic priest. Most of these years I spent in the Diocese of Charlotte which covers Western North Carolina. Now I am retired, and live in Medellín, Colombia where I continue to serve as a priest in the Archdiocese of Medellín.
Saturday of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Lent, February 17
