Feast of Saint Matthew, Apostle and evangelist
Wedding invitations have changed a lot in the last twenty five years. To create a wedding invitation the main questions were “embossed or not?” and “what font?” It was simple. The advent of digital technology has allowed for invitations to be re-envisioned. While this is great in that it allows for so much more creativity, it also difficult because there are so many questions to answer. Should we use pictures? If so how many? Which of these thousand pictures do we choose?
Choices can empower but when they are complex they can be overwhelming. We are given a simple invitation, a simple call to be faithful disciples. As Catholic Christians this invitation is our baptismal call. We are baptized into a life of faith modeled on Christ. The sacraments and lives of holiness open us to God’s grace in a way that it equips us for specific ministries: as apostles, pastors, prophets, evangelists, and teachers. It also equips us to live as people who are single, or married, consecrated or vowed religious. Each is given the grace for their particular ministries and specific call.
We have examples of faithful disciples, like St. Paul and St. Matthew who teach us through their writings and lives what they learned from the Lord. These lessons flow down to us today. What is clear from today’s gospel is that Jesus’ call of St. Matthew was simple and straight forward. That same invitation is ours today, “Follow me.”
"Loving God, You made each of us to know, love and serve You. You also made each us for a definite purpose. Help us be fully aware of Your invitation. Give us the grace to answer the call, follow me with an enthusiastic yes! Amen."
- Deacon Michael Montgomery