My dear brother and sisters, we celebrate the feast of St Matthew.
Let us take a look at
the life of Matthew. Matthew, the Evangelist who wrote the Gospel that appears first in the New Testament, was different from the other Apostles. He was not a popular man. Many people felt that he was unworthy to be a chosen as a follower of Jesus. Matthew worked for the Romans as a tax collector. The Romans ruled over the Jewish people in the time of Jesus. They forced the Jewish people to pay taxes to them. Many of the tax collectors cheated the people by charging more taxes than required and keeping the extra money for themselves. The Jews considered the tax collectors traitors. We must know this, that during that time, to be a tax collector you had to be rich, influential and have friends with the Roman Rulers. Therefore, it is clear that when Jesus met Matthew, he was already rich, influential, and corrupt. It was clear that he didn’t lack anything materially. Yet, as we heard in today’s Gospel when Jesus called Matthew, Matthew simply left his job and followed Jesus. What made him to do that? Let us try to analyse this entire episode of today’s Gospel. In this passage we see there are mainly only 2 characters, Jesus and Matthew. First Jesus, choose Matthew and calls him. It is very clear that when Jesus calls or chooses someone, he doesn’t look at their status or condition of life. He doesn’t care whether you are a sinner or saint. In fact, Jesus never calls qualified people, he qualifies the people he calls. Jesus did not look at past or present of Matthew he looked at the Future and knew that Matthew would be a great evangelist. Matthew was so powerful that his gospel today has influenced and converted millions of people. Mahatma Gandhi was influenced by this very Gospel especially the beatitudes and fought the fight of non-violence. We can truly say that St Matthew is like the father of our nation. From Jesus we get a strong message never judge a person, because God never judges. He is merciful. He can change anyone anytime. Second we see Matthew making a choice. Matthew left everything and followed Jesus. What must have made Matthew do that? Matthew must have realised that his riches or status was useless. In fact you can say he conquered the world with is power and influence but in the process lost his own soul, his respect and love from his own people. He never thought Jesus could choose him a broken man. He was hated by all but loved by Jesus and he chose Jesus. This is the message we get today. We all have a choice. Our choices define us. It was because of wrong choices that there have been wars and corruption in this world. Where there are choices there is freedom. We are all free to make our choice. We have a choice to choose Jesus or the world. This is not a one-time choice, but this is choice we have to make daily. But we need to remember with every choice comes consequences which we have no control over. When we choose wrongly we will also face bad consequences, but when we choose Jesus, no matter what the future is Jesus will always remain with us. We see in today’s Gospel itself that as soon as Matthew followed Jesus, Jesus went into his house. If we want Jesus to remain with us in our families, in our office, in our initiatives, let us give him the first place. Cast all your cares unto him for he cares for you. () Another strong message we get from the life of Matthew is that, it’s never too late for anyone to change. We often times give up on life, give up on others. No matter how worst the situation be, no matter how worst the person can get we must never give up. Change will come. There is no situation too tough for our God to change, no sickness he cannot heal and no person he cannot touch. He is the God of the impossible. All we have to do is give him a chance. And he will make life beautiful again. So how can we put into practice the message we receive today. Firstly let us remember we all have a calling, like Matthew was called, we are also called for a purpose and a mission. In today’s first reading St Paul in his letter to the Ephesians beautifully narrates how God has called us uniquely for a task, some to preach, some to teach yet all with a task. We have a role to play in the church, society and our families. Let us find out our purpose. Secondly, let us always make the right choice. There are choices we need to make daily, some big some small. Sometimes it is the small wrong choices we make that hurt God more. When someone hurts us, curses us, how do we respond? Do we curse them back, or forgive them? When we see someone in need, what is our choice? Do we help them? Sometimes small things like, closing a leaking water tap, switching of an unused tube light, picking up wastes and putting in to the bin, saving water and electricity, planting small saplings are small things which impress God more as these are acts which saves the earth and mankind. Let us choose to do well. Lastly let us spend more time with the so called “sinners”, those who are rejected by society because of their past. Those who no one wants to spend time or speak with. Let us try and give God’s love to them. We never know but we might even help them convert by our Love. God will be very happy over one sinner that repents than over 99 who need no repentance. Let us be merciful like our heavenly father. And so as we receive Jesus’s body in the form of bread today let us ask of him the grace to pick the right choice and follow Him daily.
Alexander Strauch, Stephen Sorenson, Amanda Sorenson - Biblical Eldership - An Urgent Call To Restore Biblical Church Leadership-Lewis and Roth Publishers (2003) PDF