“He eats with publicans and sinners.” Mk. 2:13-17

Levi was a tax collector, a position that made him a sinner for dealing with non-Jews and serving the Romans. In the Old Testament, fasting was a means for union with God; in the New Testament, it is food. Jesus had a hard time changing these patterns of behavior because the “pure” Jews ate only pure food, with other pure Jews erecting walls of separation. Jesus, on the other hand, wants an open family, breaks down those walls and eats with everyone, creating community above race, religion, ideology, gender or culture. He eats, especially, with tax collectors and sinners, not to approve of what they do, but to invite them to accept the Good News. In the dining room, time and the parables of life are shared. For what does this reflection today invite us to pray?