Mc 2,13-17 – Saint Anthony, Abbot – Memory
The call of Levi, son of Alphaeus, that is, that famous Matthew who we would later know as the Evangelist, reminds us that very often Jesus is capable of risking his own reputation in order to give each of us another chance. In fact, in the collective imagination Levi is a public sinner, a collaborator of the Roman oppressors, that is, one to whom one must not give no space, no respect, no chance.
Yet Jesus gathers this shattered man into his good reputation and makes him not only a disciple, but also an evangelist. To those who criticize him for these choices he responds in a lapidary manner: «It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick; I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” We should not fall into the trap of the scribes and Pharisees, because in reality Jesus, by responding in this way, is saying out loud that he came exactly for you and me. In fact, only when we realize that we are all sick and sinners do we understand the logic of Jesus and realize that his mission has each of us at its centre. We are all Levi, even if we like to play blameless.
In this sense, the feast of Saint Anthony the Abbot, which we celebrate today, helps us to understand the Gospel even better: Anthony too took his own fragility and his need for salvation seriously, choosing not to hide them, but to hand them over to God. By retreating into the desert he did not flee from the world to feel better, but to allow himself to be healed more deeply. He thus became a free man because he recognized himself as needy. It’s exactly the same logic as Levi: only those who accept being sick can truly meet the Doctor; only those who stop defending their own presumed justice can allow themselves to be called, forgiven and transformed. And so, today, Levi and Saint Anthony the Abbot together remind us that holiness is not the reward for the good, but the path of the saved.
