MATTHEW, Apostle, Evangelist

September 21, Tuesday

TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

 

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 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.

 

First Reading: Ephesians 4:1-7,11-13

In light of all this, here’s what I want you to do. While I’m locked up here, a prisoner for the Master, I want you to get out there and walk—better yet, run!—on the road God called you to travel. I don’t want any of you sitting around on your hands. I don’t want anyone strolling off, down some path that goes nowhere. And mark that you do this with humility and discipline—not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love, alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences.

You were all called to travel on the same road and in the same direction, so stay together, both outwardly and inwardly. You have one Master, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who rules over all, works through all, and is present in all. Everything you are and think and do is permeated with Oneness.

But that doesn’t mean you should all look and speak and act the same. Out of the generosity of Christ, each of us is given his own gift.

He handed out gifts of apostle, prophet, evangelist, and pastor-teacher to train Christ’s followers in skilled servant work, working within Christ’s body, the church, until we’re all moving rhythmically and easily with each other, efficient and graceful in response to God’s Son, fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ.

 

Gospel: Matthew 9:9-13

Passing along, Jesus saw a man at his work collecting taxes. His name was Matthew. Jesus said, “Come along with me.” Matthew stood up and followed him.

Later when Jesus was eating supper at Matthew’s house with his close followers, a lot of disreputable characters came and joined them. When the Pharisees saw him keeping this kind of company, they had a fit, and lit into Jesus’ followers. “What kind of example is this from your Teacher, acting cozy with crooks and riffraff?”

Jesus, overhearing, shot back, “Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? Go figure out what this Scripture means: ‘I’m after mercy, not religion.’ I’m here to invite outsiders, not coddle insiders.”

 

Prayer

Lord God of mercy,
you show us today
in your apostle and evangelist Matthew
how you put the self-righteous to shame
and call sinners to the task
of bringing your Son’s good news to the world.
Forgive us our pride and reassure us
that we can count on you and your love
because we are weak and sinful people.
Let us share in your message and life
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

Reflection:

 
Jesus’ has fixed his gaze on you

Today the Church celebrates the Feast of Saint Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist. He is venerated as the patron saint of accountants, money managers, bankers, book-keepers and finance officers.

“The calling of Matthew reminds us that when Christ makes us his disciples, he does not look to our past but to the future,” Says Pope Francis. He says, he developed a special devotion to St. Matthew when he was 17 years old. The gaze of Jesus completely overtook the tax collector and sinner Matthew. It changed his life. It changed Jorge Bergoglio’s life. It changes our life.

Reflecting on the call of Matthew, Pope said, “Jesus’ gaze always lifts us up. It never lets us down… It invites us to get up… to move forward. The gaze makes you feel that He loves you. This gives the courage to follow Him. And “Matthew got up and followed Him’.”
Once, while speaking about his vocation, the pope referred to the famous painting of “The Calling of Saint Matthew” by Caravaggio, which is kept in the Church of Saint Louis of France in Rome. In the painting, Jesus’ finger points at Matthew, as if in an attempt to recreate the famous painting of the Creation of Adam by Michael Angelo, in the ceiling of Sistine Chapel. Matthew is holding on to his money-bag as if to say “No, not me! No, this money is mine.” Pope Francis says he sees himself in Matthew – a sinner on whom the Lord turned His gaze. He trusted in Christ’s infinite mercy and accepted His calling.

It is important to preserve the memory of our origins: Our sinfulness, our unworthiness. We should always be aware of where we came from. Because, in spite of being unworthy, the Lord showed his mercy to forgive us our sins and chose us to be his disciples and apostle.
God’s mercy seeks everyone, forgives everyone. The only thing he asks of you today is to say: ‘Yes Lord, help me’.” When Jesus called Matthew, he renounced everything to follow Him. Matthew celebrates this immensely joyous occasion with his friends to sit with Jesus. At that table, sat “the very worst of society. And Jesus with them”, says the Pope.

Jesus invites us to sit with him at the table of the Eucharist, in which he purifies us by the power of his word and by the sacrament unites us ever more deeply to himself. Citing the prophet Hosea, he tells us that what God desires is “mercy, not sacrifice”, true conversion of heart and not merely some formal acts of religion such as repeating some prayers, and going to the church for fulfilling an obligation.

 

Video available on Youtube:  Jesus’ has fixed his gaze on you