RajahJun

At the tax collector's booth, Matthew (also named Levi) the tax collector was so happy when Jesus invited him to be one of his disciples. To show his appreciation and joy, Matthew threw a dinner party for Jesus. On the evening of the party, Jesus and his disciples arrived and sat down to eat. Matthew invited his friends too. They were tax collectors like him and other sinners. The Pharisees who saw what was going on at the dinner party were scandalized at the sight of Jesus mingling with people whom they consider as sinners. Their disgust was written in Matthew 9: 11. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" Jesus on hearing the Pharisees' comment, replied, "It is not the healthy who needs a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what that means: 'I desire mercy not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." (Matthew 9:12) Jesus was angry at the Phari...

Lately, I began reading the Bible again because I was looking for answers to questions as to why the Covid-19 pandemic had to happen. Was there a reason for it? Did God willed it to happen to teach us all a lesson? Was it entirely our fault that it had to happen? Was this event written somewhere in the scripture like a prophetic message? I'm not sure if I can find the answer in the Bible to those questions. But I'll try. My other reason for reading the Bible again is that I wanted to re-ignite my faith in God. I guess it was faltering a bit because of what's happening today.  People, who believe in God, resorted to prayers and turned back to God when things weren't looking good. The pandemic which had raged since last year had been tough for all of us. These past years, I have not actively read the Bible and I just relied on sermons from our parish priest when we were still able to attend mass as a community. Sadly, hearing mass is now close to impossible lest you contr...