Jesus certainly made strange choices in his prospective followers. Today we see Jesus picking someone who was regarded as an immoral money-grabber, a religious outcast - a tax collector. But Jesus knows his man. At the sound of the invitation, Levi drops everything, his whole business and the security it brings him. It is very similar to the fishermen leaving their boats and their nets. He then goes off after Jesus. Where? For what? He has no idea. In a great act of trust and faith, he throws in his lot with Jesus whatever it is going to mean, wherever it is going to bring him. Then, as he leaves his old life, he throws a party in his house for all his friends, who of course were social rejects like himself. The religious-minded scribes and Pharisees were shocked that Jesus accepted the invitation to be there. But Jesus had not come to call the virtuous, but sinners, to repentance. What is needed is to reach out to those who are lost, whose lives are going in the wrong direction, who are leading a self-destructive existence. And surely that is what the Church needs to be doing today. Some are still shocked to see a priest or a "good" Catholic in "bad" company when those are the ones who most need to hear the Gospel. And, in fact, all of us, without exception, are in need of healing.