Ephesians 4:1-7, 11-13 / Matthew 9:9-13
There is one Lord over all: Preserve your unity.
John Howard Griffin dyed his skin black, shaved his head, and posed as a black man in the South in the pre-civil rights days. One day he asked for a Catholic church. He was told that the nearest "colored Catholic church" was on Drysades Street.
"There's no such thing as a colored Catholic church," Griffin replied. His informant said, "You don't really believe that, do you? This is the South. You're going to find that a lot of white Catholics look on you as a nigger first and a Catholic second, no matter what the Archbishop says." John H. Griffin, "Racist Sins of Christians"
From a despised tax collector, appraised no higher than a public sinner or a pagan, Matthew becomes an apostle. He is living proof that Jesus came to call sinners. And among the apostles, he is one of the two who witnessed to Christ not only with their life and work but also in their writing. He is with us today to strengthen our faith. He shows how Jesus is the fulfillment of the scriptures and how our communities today, like his long ago, have to put the Good News of Jesus into practice.
***
Do we look upon all Christians as being equal members of the Body of Christ? "I pray that they may all be one. Father! . . . May they be one so that the world will believe that you sent me." John 17:21
***
A pastor once ran into a “lost sheep” of his parish. This man had stopped going to church a long time ago. The pastor gently invited him to return to church. The man said with no little self-righteousness: “Father, I don’t go because the church is full of crooks and hypocrites.” And the pastor responded: “If so, please do come. We can always make room for one more.”
The Church belongs to saints and sinners alike. Perhaps more sinners than saints, for the Church exists for their sake: “Healthy people do not need a doctor, but sick people do.” We go to Church not to proclaim our righteousness to the world, but to humbly declare our sinfulness and need for God, and to receive His mercy and healing. By calling Matthew to belong to his band of apostles, Jesus makes it very clear that from the greatest to the least in the Church, everyone is sinful and all stand in need of God’s mercy.
Matthew is an evangelist, a prophet, and a disciple among the Twelve. We all share the same hope and the same call and so must make every effort to preserve unity among us. We must all strive to build up one another in the knowledge of God's Son and to share the favor that has been given to us. Matthew's Gospel: emphasizes many of these exhortations because his community was being torn apart by persecution by the Romans and the Jews and they are struggling as Jewish and Gentile Christians to be one heart and mind in Christ. Matthew was a tax collector. He stops taking from others to give to the state and the temple treasury. He begins giving of the mercy and healing/health of mind/soul/spirit that Jesus so graciously offered to him. What are we called to leave behind so that we can begin giving to each other?
Have we ever wondered what were the thoughts that crossed the mind of St. Matthew as he got up from the customs house to follow Jesus? Was it apprehension or uncertainty because he was walking away from a stable and profitable job, although it is not a respectable one? Or was it a sense of insecurity and anxiety that from that moment on, things are not going to be the same anymore in that nothing can be taken for granted anymore? But over and above all these thoughts was the great up-lifting feeling that someone had given him respect, dignity and self-worth.
****
The context: Today’s Gospel episode of Matthew’s call as Jesus’ apostle reminds us of God’s love and mercy for sinners and challenges us to practice this same love and mercy in our relations with others.
The call and the response: Jesus went to the tax-collector’s office to invite Matthew to become his disciple. Since tax-collectors worked for a foreign power and extorted more tax money from the people than they owed, they were hated and despised as traitors by the Jewish people, and they were considered public sinners and ostracized by the Pharisees. But Jesus could see in Matthew a person who needed Divine love and grace. That is why, while everyone hated Matthew, Jesus was ready to offer him undeserved love, mercy and forgiveness. Hence, Matthew abandoned his lucrative job, because, for him, Christ’s call to follow him was a promise of salvation, fellowship, guidance and protection. Scandalous partying with sinners. It was altogether natural for Matthew to rejoice in his new calling by celebrating with his friends. Jesus’ dining with outcasts in the house of a “traitor” scandalized the Pharisees, for whom ritual purity and table fellowship were important religious practices. Hence, they asked the disciples, “Why does your master eat with tax collectors and sinners?” In answer to their question, Jesus stressed his ministry as healer: “Those who are well do not need a physician; the sick do.” Then Jesus challenged the Pharisees, quoting Hosea, “Go and learn the meaning of the words, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice’” (Hosea 6:6). Finally, Jesus clarified his position, “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” [After the Ascension, Saint Matthew remained for over ten years in Judea, writing his Gospel there in about the year 44. Then he went to preach the Faith in Egypt and especially in Ethiopia, where he remained for twenty-three years. The relics of Saint Matthew were for many years in the city of Naddaver in Ethiopia, where he suffered his martyrdom but were transferred to Salerno in the year 954].
Life messages: 1) Jesus calls you and me for a purpose: Jesus has called us through our Baptism, forgiven us our sins, and welcomed us as members of the Kingdom. In fact, Jesus calls us daily through the Word and through his Church, to be his disciples and to turn away from all the things that distract us and draw us away from God. 2) Just as Matthew did, we, too, are expected to proclaim Christ through our lives by reaching out to the unwanted and the marginalized in society with Christ’s love, mercy and compassion. (Fr. Tony) L/18
****
Matthew, also known as Levi, was a tax collector in the town of Capernaum. Most tax collectors were hated by the Jews because they worked for the Romans, who had conquered the land. A tax collector could use his position honestly or dishonestly. The temptation to use the position to become rich was great. Now do you think the choice of Matthew was surprising?
We know nothing other than that about Matthew from the Scriptures, but we do know that Matthew preached the Good News of Christ, and at least part of the Gospel attributed to him was first written for the Jewish converts in Palestine. There is some uncertainty about where Matthew preached and where and how he died. Some say Matthew went to Persia; some say Syria and Greece, while others say Ethiopia. Yet we can learn much from Matthew. He was a man who knew quite well the power of money. He knew the comfort it could ensure, the recreation it could buy, the luxury it could provide. But he was wise enough to know what it could not do. Money could never give him that sense of peace deep inside. It could never befriend him when he was lonely or give him the strength and courage to go on when all else seemed lost. Money could never buy him forgiveness or love. But the love of Christ could do all this and more.
