The Place of Reconciliation

Gospel: Mark 2: 13-17

Whenever we have a falling out with a loved one, very often the place of reconciliation and forgiveness is at table over a meal.  It may be a lunch or dinner date, or coffee and a snack at home.  But the meal and the table become the place where we sort out our differences, seek forgiveness, and seek to restore our relationship with the person we love.  

In today's Gospel we find the very same dynamic at work in the ministry of Jesus.  We find him here and in many other instances having meals with notorious sinners, the very worst of Jesus' time: tax collectors and prostitutes and many others.  It is abundantly clear that table fellowship with the Lord requires no preconditions, and it is not a reward for our behavior.  The table is a place of encounter where we look to restore and renew our relationship with the Lord and one another.

In this Gospel scene we also have those who would seek to be bouncers and screeners at the table of the Lord.  Jesus rebukes them all, just as he does to us in our own time.  No one is turned away from the Lord's table by the one whose table it is, and nor should we ever dare to deter another person from an encounter with the Lord.