He Calls the Sinner

 “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.” (Mark 2:17)

Jesus Christ is the Divine Healer. He came for each and every one of us because we are all sinners. The Pharisees are self righteous. They think they are better than sinners and tax collectors. They are blind to their own sin, pointing out the splinter in the sinner’s eye yet failing to acknowledge the wooden beam in their own eye. We all have the tendency to judge others and it is hard to get through the day without doing so. We judge the person who shows up to Mass late. We judge the person at the grocery store whose child is having a tantrum. We judge the person who cuts us off in traffic. We often judge quickly, mercilessly and based on first impression. We fail to consider that person’s situation or have any empathy for them. Judging others is a distraction that keeps us from looking at our own sin.

God doesn’t look at the external things, he looks at our heart. In order to seek the Physician we must first acknowledge that we are ill. We often dismiss the impact that our sins may have on others and even try to fool ourselves into thinking that it has no impact on others. Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson wrote that none of us know the full malice of sin. “One man is a slave, let us say, to a sin of the flesh, and seeks to reassure himself by the reflection that he injures no one but himself; ignorant as he is of the outrage to God the Holy Spirit whose temple he is ruining. Or a woman repeats again every piece of slanderous gossip that comes her way and comforts herself in moments of compunction by reflecting that she ‘means no harm’; ignorant as she is of the discouragement of souls of which she is the cause and of the seeds of distrust and enmity sown among sins.”  Our sins hurt our relationship with God and with those around us. We need to seek his forgiveness and ask for the grace to sin no more and to avoid the things that lead us back into sin.

Lord, give me the courage to look honestly at myself and how I offend you through sin. I know you came for sinners and for that I am most grateful. Help me to run to you, the Divine Physician, for healing when I sin. To not be distracted by judging others but instead to be aware of the impact that my actions have on those around me. Help me to love as you love. Amen.