Follow Me.

Saturday after Ash Wednesday 2024

“Follow me” Luke 5:27-32,

We can almost picture the scene where the eyes of Matthew, the tax collector, as he sat at the customs post, meet with the Divine eyes of our Lord Jesus Christ. Those blazing eyes of divinity burning through the dark as the only light, the rays piercing tenderly and gently through the eyes and the heart of Matthew. The Divine eyes seem to search him through and through. It is as if someone who knew him from the very beginning, who knitted him together in his mother’s womb, and who has been searching for him all these years, now finds him. And with that familiar gaze, that tender look as of a mother to her child, the Lord looks at his beloved lost creature. And with those irresistible holy eyes burning with love and mercy, Matthew is shaken to his very depth. Someone who knows him through and through now gazes intently at him.

Then there comes the sweet and gentle sound as of a loving father to a lost and found son, “follow me.” Oh, how lovely! How sweet the sound! Not one of condemnation or accusation, but one of great tenderness and love, “follow me.” In other words, “come home!” return to your father’s loving arms, there is forgiveness and mercy for the sinner, there is infinite love for the children.

And Matthew gathers up all the strength he can master, struck with the powerful rays of infinite divine mercy, and overcome with this infinite love and tenderness shown to him, followed by a familiar voice of his loving father, he gets up and takes a step forward, once for all, never to turn back, and to never ever leave his father’s loving arms again. He leaves everything behind and follows Jesus. Oh, what inspiration you are to all of humanity, Holy Apostle Matthew!

“Follow me.” The same sound keeps beating upon our ears, and in a special way, during this beautiful quiet season of Lent. The silence of Lent makes Jesus’ voice resound even more, “Follow me.” I first heard that voice when I was ten. I set out and followed Him whom I did not fully know. But the voice captured me and filled me with such an intense desire for Him that nothing was able to convince me otherwise. In every step of the way, I come to know Him, and the more I know Jesus, the more I discover my true humanity: my purpose, my dignity, and my destiny.

“Follow me.” “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” Let us heed the voice of a shepherd who comes to seek his own lost sheep, when it is dark and cloudy. Let us listen more intently to the Divine bridegroom, to a loving and merciful father, who comes in search of his own.