Not your sacrifices and your gifts I want—I want you to be merciful!

Matthew 9:9-13

As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. Now go away and learn the meaning of this verse of Scripture, ‘It isn’t your sacrifices and your gifts I want—I want you to be merciful.’

Food for thought!

In today's gospel reading there is an interesting detail. When Jesus met Matthew, he told him, "Follow me!" and Matthew got up and followed Jesus. The gospel does not tell us where the two went; it doesn't tell us where that Follow Me lead them.
This said, we can guess that they went straight to Matthew's house. This is so because immediately after the phrase "...and Matthew got up and followed him", the next sentence mentions Matthew's house: "While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house...". It means that Jesus must have told Matthew: Follow Me into your house! He literally told him to follow him into his life, into his family, into his circle, into his friends, into his company, into his place of work!

And when Jesus got into Matthew's place and circle, he found all kinds of people. The gospel says that "many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him." These people were for sure Matthew's close friends and company; they were Matthew's circle; they couldn't just not come.

Btw, who are your friends, who are your company, who are your facebook people? What kind of people are they? Are you like them? Are they like you? Remember that when people act the same, they hang out together. People that have the same morals often tend to group together. Birds of the same feather flock together. Your friends are like you, and you must be like your friends. As the saying goes, "Tell me who your friends are and I'll tell you who you are."

It is consoling to learn that Jesus' friends and company and family and circle is full of 'bad' people; Jesus is not afraid to keep company of the sick, the despised, the lonely, the weird, etc.

Now go away and learn the meaning of this verse of Scripture, ‘It isn’t your sacrifices and your gifts I want—I want you to be merciful.’