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.”

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.”