Live in a Manner Worthy of the Call You have Received"
Today's Mass Readings
Today is the Feast of St. Matthew, an apostle of Jesus and the author of the gospel of Matthew. On this feast day we reflect on the “call” each Christian has. In today’s first reading from the Letter of St. Paul to the Ephesians, the apostle Paul calls himself “a prisoner for the Lord.” Rather than being prisoners to sin, we all are prisoners to the Lord. Of course, unlike prisoners in a prison, we have far more freedoms. The point is that we ought to choose to follow the Lord’s will in our freedom, unlike a prisoner who is forced to do another’s bidding because of his lack of freedom. We can reflect on our call on three levels. At one level, there are some things each Christian ought to do, like love others and serve them. We should not murder or steal. On another level, we each have professions. Some of us are called to be teachers, engineers, doctors, construction worker, or simply work at home taking care of our families. Some of us are called to be single, others to marriage and yet others to single minded devotion to God as priest and religious.
No matter of what state we are in regarding the first two levels, there is a fundamental level on which each of us has the same calling – to follow Jesus. We are all called to follow the example of the apostle Matthew. Jesus called Matthew and told him, “Follow me.” The Scripture tells us that Matthew simply, “got up and followed him.” Jesus is calling all of us to follow Him.
This last level of following is the most fundamental level of following. In other words, we are not first teachers, doctors, nurses, and construction workers, but we are first and foremost “followers” of Jesus. Matthew recognized his fundamental calling when Jesus called him. That call was so important for him that he gave up his profession to follow his fundamental call. (Yes, sometimes people’s fundamental following and profession can clash – like a person who sells drugs for a living).
When we begin to take our fundamental calling seriously, then we become not just ordinary teachers, doctors, nurses, construction workers, but rather Christian teachers, Christian doctors, Christian, nurses, Christian construction workers. We are not long ordinary people in the world. We become Christian people in our world. Let us pray for the courage to “follow Jesus” and thus become evangelists like Matthew by our lifestyle.