There was a Jesuit - by name, Father Bill Parsons. He worked for many years in different ministries in many places, but finally had a severe stroke that left him speech-impaired. Tom was Bill's superior, and he visited him faithfully in the nursing home.

But Tom would always return to the community so frustrated. He'd tell them: I wish I knew what Bill wanted, but I can't make out what he's saying. He just gets out: "I … waaa … you." I keep trying to guess what he's saying - what he wants. Do you want to go for a walk, for a ride? Do you want something to drink, to eat? Do you need to go to the bathroom? And Bill just shakes his head, also feeling the frustration. So then I pick out something to do for him and hope it's what he wants.

Now that went on for quite a while. Then one day Tom returned to the Jesuit community all excited. He had found out what Bill had been trying to say. He was saying: "I … waaa … ove … you." Bill had been saying to Tom: "I love you."

I think we are very much like Tom was with Bill when we come to God and especially when we come to the scriptures that have been read to us this morning. In our first reading from the prophet Hosea God manages to get out to us - to gurgle out: "it is love I desire, not sacrifice - knowledge of God rather than holocausts." In our gospel reading from Matthew God again manages to mouth out to us: " I desire mercy, not sacrifice. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners."

Again like Tom was with Bill - we just don't seem to make out what is being communicated: "I desire mercy, not sacrifice." So we begin to guess: do you want me to be good, to say my prayers, to go to church, to be religious? And we perform accordingly, hoping it's what God wants.

Now just perhaps - just maybe - two words do get through to us from today's gospel: Follow me! Jesus says: Follow me! Follow me - so you don't have to listen as much as just look. Follow me and look at where I go and what I do. Follow me - as I call Matthew to be my disciple - Matthew! - a tax collector - a man despised by religious people for his collaboration with the Roman occupiers - a man resented and rebuffed for his fabulous wealth. Follow me - as I make such a man as Matthew one of my chosen ones - one of my apostles - one of the pillars of the church.

Follow me and watch - as I enter Matthew's house - a very nice house! Watch - as I warmly greet all the other tax collectors and really enjoy their company - the unpretensious company of religious and social outcasts. Just see and feel the resentment I get from the Pharisees. Their name, Pharisee, in Hebrew means those who keep themselves apart and separate - those who keep themselves clean, pure and righteous.

If we actually follow Jesus, if we act like real disciples of Jesus, then maybe our watching him, maybe our going with him and being with the people he goes with - maybe all that will improve our hearing. Maybe we will actually begin to hear God saying to us in a gentle, yet unmistakable yell: it is love I desire, not sacrifice. I'm after mercy, not more religion. I'm here to invite outsiders, not coddle insiders.

I want to go back to the story we began with. When Tom finally learned what it was Bill Parsons was trying to say - that he was trying to say "I love you." - it was not Tom who actually made out what Bill was saying. It was Maria - Maria Sanchez from Guatemala, a nurse's aide. In helping Bill to roll over in bed, he had said to her: "I … waaa … ove … you." English was not Maria's native tongue but she picked that up right away.

Like Maria, let us hear and understand: it is mercy I desire - I'm after love that lasts.