What A Friend We Have In Jesus
Saturday of the First Week in Ordinary Time
Scriptural Readings: 1 Samuel 9:1-4, 17-19; 10:1; Psalm 21:2-3, 4-5, 6-7 Mark 2:13-17
My dear encountered couples:
Some people have more friends than others. Some people don’t have any friends at all. Jesus wants to be everybody’s friend. He especially wants to be a friend to the outcast. And for that he got himself criticized. “Why does he eat with tax collectors and other sinners?” asked the scribes and Pharisees. “Doesn’t that man have any pride?” they probably wondered.
Whenever any of us feel left out, unloved, not wanted, we have no visitors, no phone calls, no invites, and the only mail we get is third class, we need to remember there is at least one person who wants to keep us company. We don’t have just the television, or the radio, or the stereo, or a book to keep us company, we have Jesus Christ. He’s always knocking at our doors and ringing our bells. All we have to do is open up and talk to him. He wants to be our friend. But that kind of friendship takes faith.
Maybe the reason we are all left alone and lonely at times is because God wants to give us a chance to increase our faith. We are supposed to turn to him, talk to him, dine with him (he loves candlelight), even watch TV and munch popcorn with him. No one can have a better and more agreeable friend than Jesus. He’ll do anything with you that you want to do - well, almost anything.
“Why does he eat with such as these?” they complained. Because he loves them is the answer. He wants to be their friend. And yours, too!
