Today we see how Lent progresses and the intensity of the conversion to which the Lord calls us. The figure of the apostle and evangelist Matthew is very representative of those who may come to think that, because of our history, or because of personal sins or complicated situations, it is difficult for the Lord to look at us to collaborate with Him.

Well, Jesus Christ, to remove all doubt, puts the tax collector Levi as our first evangelist, to whom he simply says: "Follow me" (Lk 5:27). With him he does exactly the opposite of what a "prudent" mentality might consider if we wanted to appear "politically correct." Levi, on the other hand, came from a world where he suffered the rejection of all his compatriots, since he was considered, just for the fact of being a publican, a collaborator of the Romans and, possibly, a fraudster for "commissions," the one who drowned the poor to collect taxes from them, in short, a public sinner.

Those who considered themselves perfect could not have imagined that Jesus would call Levi to follow him, but even less to sit at the same table.

But with this attitude of choosing him, Our Lord Jesus Christ tells us that it is rather this type of person that he likes to use to extend his Kingdom; he has chosen the wicked, the sinners, those who do not believe themselves to be righteous: “God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong” (1 Cor 1:27). These are the ones who need the doctor, and above all, they are the ones who will understand that others need him.

We must therefore avoid thinking that God wants a clean and immaculate record in order to serve him. He only prepared this history for Our Mother. But for us, subjects of God's salvation and protagonists of Lent, God wants a contrite and humbled heart. Precisely, “God has chosen you to be weak in order to give you his own power” (Saint Augustine). These are the kind of people whom, as the psalmist says, God does not despise.