Feast of Saint Matthew, Apostle and evangelist
Paul’s theme in the first reading for today, from Ephesians, is unity in diversity. Each of us Christians has our own strengths and weaknesses. We come from all walks of life and from every country and culture on the earth. Paul makes it clear that despite our differences, all Christians are united in Christ. As Paul says, we are united by virtue of the fact that we are all baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection and that we are thereby united in him. Our common faith in one and the same God unites us all no matter what individual differences exist between us.
Sometimes we may be tempted to think that everyone needs to be the same, and that if some people are different, that is a bad thing. Children and teenagers experience peer pressure to conform to the way other people do things. And this pressure continues into adulthood. We want to be like those around us in order that we will be accepted by them. Paul makes it clear, however, that Christians are not all the same. In fact, we have many different gifts from God. A large part of learning to live life as a Christian is to learn how to develop these gifts in a faithful way. Each of us encounters Jesus’ call in our own particular lives no matter where we live and what our lives may be like. It is up to us to then respond to this call to live life in a more faithful manner, and to do so in such a way that we contribute to and enhance the lives of other Christians who are also striving to serve God.
The gospel reading for today tells the story of the calling of Matthew. Matthew was a tax collector and, as such, he was considered to be morally tainted. His collaboration with the Roman authorities in addition to the fact that he probably profited from his position at the expense of his fellow citizens made him suspect in the eyes of many, including the Pharisees. The Pharisees lash out against Jesus, accusing him of associating with “tax collectors and sinners.” Jesus responds by saying that he has come to call sinners, because it is they who are in need of someone to heal them. Matthew is an example of one of these sinners. By calling Matthew and the other twelve apostles, Jesus chose a group of people to take the gospel to the four corners of the world. The apostles clearly were called for a special purpose. Yet we can overemphasize the difference between them and us. In the end all Christians have the same call. We are all called to respond to Jesus and to serve him as well as we can in the particularity of our daily lives no matter where we are.
As Christians we are all called to serve Jesus. Today, on this feast of St Matthew, let us pray that we will allow each other to serve Jesus in our own particular way—to follow our own particular calling. And in so doing we will work to build each other up and to encourage each other in our mutual life of faith in Jesus Christ.
Joel Schickel