Hebrews 4:12-16 / Mark 2:13-17
We have a great high priest; He was tempted but did not sin.
In 1982 Archbishop Jozef Glemp of Warsaw wrote a letter urging Polish young people not to become discouraged or frustrated in their quest for change.
He told them he could sympathize with them because he himself was beaten by police when he was young and militant like them. The archbishop also said that his own father was punished severely for participating in a public protest against the Nazis. Just as Archbishop Glemp understood the pain and the frustration that Polish youth felt, so Jesus understands our pain and frustration. Jesus was someone who was like us in all things but sin.****
Do we ever speak to Jesus about how he handled pain and frustration? "Do not be conquered by evil but conquer evil with good." Romans 12:21
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The word of God is alive and active, says the first reading. It is so alive and active that this word of God, spoken by Jesus, changes sinners into saints. This word can judge, but it judges with mildness: by offering new chances. Do we offer these chances to others? Or does our attitude—if not words—of condemnation keep people confined within their mediocrity and failures?
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Matthew is a typical sinner, a tax collector, one who was not only exploiting his own people but a traitor to them as a collaborator with the Romans. But he responds to Jesus’ call and becomes an apostle and martyr, faithful to the end.
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It is understandable if non-Catholics have certain assumptions and expectations about Catholics. Because we are the largest as well as probably the most prominent Church and also the Church that the media will use for its interests. Hence Catholics are expected to be good people and living saintly lives and doing good deeds.
But when the opposite happens, then Catholics and the Catholic Church are in for bad publicity. That was what happened when Jesus called Levi the tax collector to be one of His disciples. The assumption was that if Jesus were a teacher and a holy man, then He should be choosing good and respectable people to be His disciples. Yet what Jesus said in the gospel reminds us of who He is and what the Church is all about.
He did not come to call the virtuous but sinners. Hence the Church is also for sinners just as the hospital is for the sick. Yet the Church is also a sign of salvation. The Church must always look to Jesus the high priest who has been tempted in every way that we are, though He is without sin (1st reading).
Let us be confident then that we shall have mercy from Him and find grace when we are in need of help. And let us be that sign of salvation that the world is looking for.
Let us pray: God of mercy and compassion, you call weak people, sinful as they are, to give shape to your dreams about people and their world and to be instruments of salvation. Give us trust, not in our own strength, but in the power of your love, which can do through us and with us what we ourselves are incapable of. We thank you for calling us out of our frailty and alienation through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
St. Devasahayam Pillai
Saint of the Day for January 14
(April 23, 1712-January 14, 1752)
Saint Devasahayam Pillai’s Story
Neelakandan Pillai was born into an affluent Hindu family in 1712. As a young man he went into the service of the royal household in India’s Travancore province. Eventually put in charge of state affairs, Pillai became acquainted with Captain Eustachius De Lannoy, the Dutch naval commander who trained the king of Travancore’s forces. Their relationship awakened Pillai’s interest in the captain’s Christian faith. At his baptism in 1745, Pillai chose the name Lazarus, or Devasahayam in the Malayalam language. His wife and other members of his family were baptized at the same time.
Soon after, Pillai’s enemies convinced the royal court that he was using his position to force others to convert, leading to his imprisonment. European Christians in Travancore came to Pillai’s defence, urging the king to release him. After three years the king complied under condition that Pillai go into exile to a hostile territory. Though beaten and tortured almost daily, Pillai consistently responded with kindness, openly praying for his captors. Shot to death by local soldiers in 1752, Pillai’s body was transported to St. Xavier Church in Kottar. Later when his remains were interred beneath the altar, the site became a popular pilgrimage destination.
In 2012, Devasahayam Pillai became the first Indian layman not connected to any religious institute to be beatified. Ten years later he was canonized in Rome. His liturgical feast is celebrated on January 14.
Reflection
At the May 15, 2022, canonization Mass, Pope Francis said that the lives of the saints prove that holiness is not an unreachable goal accomplished by a select few but comes from acknowledging and sharing God’s love. Pillai, he said, exemplified the Christian call “to serve the Gospel and our brothers and sisters, to offer our lives without expecting anything in return, or any worldly glory.”
