Feast of Saint Matthew, Apostle and evangelist
I’ve often heard people say that Christianity takes away our freedom and the opportunity for self-expression and traps us in a life of rule-following. This is a common view of what it’s like to be Christian that’s often expressed by people both outside and inside the faith today. And since self-expression is such a big part of people’s self-understanding, it’s natural to ask why someone would choose to be a Christian. It would seem that Christianity doesn’t allow one to “be oneself.” Unfortunately, as Catholic Christians we haven’t always done a very good job helping people see how they can contribute to the life of the Church. I know of a number of people who feel that their individual gifts are not appreciated and that they are not encouraged to develop and use them within the Church.
The scripture readings for today address this problem in a helpful way. In the gospel reading we see Jesus calling Matthew (the tax collector) to be his disciple and then being upbraided by the Pharisees for eating with “tax collectors and sinners” (Matthew 9: 10). When this account of the calling of Matthew is read in light of the first reading (from Ephesians) we see a double truth: God calls us as individuals but in the process we become part of a larger body. What’s more, we are not just called to use our individual gifts to build up the Body of Christ, but also to encourage others to do the same. Paul tells us that in relating to other Christians, we must be patient. We may see faults and weaknesses in them but we must bear with them in humility, knowing that we too are sinners—as Jesus reminds us in the gospel, if we think we are righteous on our own then we have no need for him; he came to call those who recognized that they were in need of his healing (Matthew 9: 12-13)—and also that we are members of one Body and we share one Spirit (Ephesians 4: 4).
We need to encourage each other to use our gifts in the service of God and our neighbor. And we also need to take the initiative to develop our own gifts—to get involved in the lives of those around us and to make a positive difference in our parishes, families, neighborhoods, and cities. Paul reminds us that the way to do this is “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love, striving to preserve the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4: 2-3). These words are especially poignant today because of the many divisions that exist between Christians. These divisions point out our collective failure to live up to the instructions that Paul gives to the Christians of Ephesus to love each other. Yet, there is hope. Following Paul’s advice to see ourselves as individuals who are at the same time part of a larger body of Christ is the first step to overcoming what divides us.
- Joel Schickel