1st Week in Ordinary Time

Jesus invited Peter, Andrew, James, and John away from their fishing boats and nets to follow Him. After likewise calling the customs collector Matthew (Levi) away from his post, Jesus didn’t mind eating at his house among tax collectors and sinners. After a group of four men lowered a paralytic through the roof to reach Jesus, some scribes decried the Lord’s forgiveness of the man’s sins as blasphemy. Jesus then enabled the man to pick up his mat and walk. People at the synagogue recognized that Jesus taught with authority—an impression confirmed when even an unclean spirit obeyed Jesus’ order to leave a man. If the Lord retreated to deserted places, people still found Him. Do we invite the Lord to make Himself at home with us, going out of our way to seek and learn from Him?