Matthew mercy

The goal of being one in the Body of Christ seems, at times, to be very distant from our experience in life. The liturgy which contains the texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today celebrates the feast of the Apostle and Evangelist Matthew. Friar JudeWinkler notes that the admonishment of the Pharisees by Jesus for their reaction to His sitting to a meal with Matthew and the tax collectors is for them to remember the God desires mercy not sacrifice. The nature of God as mercy is expressed in many texts of our Tradition The orthodox Pharisees ofJesus time were learned in the Scriptures, yet they decided that legalism and avoidance of contagion from the sin of the unrighteous was in keeping with the god they could follow. The commentary of many Christians over the desire expressed in the letter to the Ephesians that we be one in the Body of Christ shows that this one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God with Whom we are invited to share the meal of Life indicates that agreement on the details of our rituals and the legality of our structures is highly unlikely. We all qualify as sinners to sit in the company of the Great Physician. As we hear the ancient directive to Love God with our whole being and love our neighbours as ourselves we can share our experience of His Mercy which is the root of Oneness.