September 21st : Gospel It is not the healthy who need the doctor, but the sickA Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St.Matthew 9: 9-13

September 21st : Gospel 

It is not the healthy who need the doctor, but the sick

A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St.Matthew 9: 9-13 

As Jesus was walking on, he saw a man named Matthew sitting by the customs house, and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he got up and followed him.

  While he was at dinner in the house it happened that a number of tax collectors and sinners came to sit at the table with Jesus and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, ‘Why does your master eat with tax collectors and sinners?’ When he heard this he replied, ‘It is not the healthy who need the doctor, but the sick. Go and learn the meaning of the words: What I want is mercy, not sacrifice. And indeed I did not come to call the virtuous, but sinners.’

The Word of the Lord.