"Come to me all you that labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest". This quotation from Matthew's Gospel, chosen for today's Alleluia verse, has been described as "the sweetest verse in Scripture." Although this verse occurs in a later Chapter, the Gospel passage we read today illustrate how Jesus looks for and chooses those who labour and are burdened. As a tax-collector, Mathew was despised and marginalized, and the friends whom he could invite to dinner in his home were tax-collectors and those whom religious leaders looked down upon as "sinners" - ordinary hard-working people who did not know the Law as the scholars did. These religious leaders presumed that the people were not capable of living according to it. In spite of what the leaders thought, these poor people were probably living lives of quiet desperation, and striving to live as decently as possible. They came together in Matthew's house to be with Jesus and would have felt something of the comfort of his presence and acceptance.