Follow Me

Jesus saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the customs post. He said to him, "Follow me." Luke 5:27

When Pope Francis was asked in an interview, “Who is Jorge Mario Bergoglio?”, he answered, "I am a sinner."

“When I had to come to Rome," he continued, “I always stayed in [the neighborhood of] Via della Scrofa. From there I often visited the Church of St. Louis of France, and I went there to contemplate the painting of ‘The Calling of St. Matthew,’ by Caravaggio. That finger of Jesus, pointing at Matthew. That’s me. I feel like him. Like Matthew.” 

Here the pope becomes determined, as if he had finally found the image he was looking for: “It is the gesture of Matthew that strikes me: he holds on to his money as if to say, ‘No, not me! No, this money is mine.’ Here, this is me, a sinner on whom the Lord has turned his gaze. And this is what I said when they asked me if I would accept my election as pontiff.” Then the pope whispers in Latin: “I am a sinner, but I trust in the infinite mercy and patience of our Lord Jesus Christ, and I accept in a spirit of penance.”

During this season of Lent, of renewal, God is also calling us to turn away from some things, and come follow Him. We can say, just like Pope Francis, “I am a sinner, but I trust in the infinite mercy and patience of our Lord Jesus Christ, and I accept Your will in a spirit of penance.”