Word to the Wise
Friday, September 21, 2007 - St. Matthew, Evangelist
[Ephesians 4:1-7, 11-13 and Matthew 9:9-13]As Jesus passed by, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post. He said to him, "Follow me." Andhe got up and followed him.
Does anybody love a tax collector? We encounter a couple of them in the gospels: Matthew/Levi (remember Bartholomew/Nathanael?) and Zacchaeus (Luke 19:2). There were a couple of strong reasons why they were despised in Jesus' time. First of all, they were collaborators with the Romans! Second, the way they made money was to extort over and above what they had a right to collect, which made them exploitative. That Jesus would include such a person in his group of closest collaborators would have been a scandal to the Pharisees! To add to it, Jesus' then goes to a dinner at Matthew's house and meets the kind of folks who would be friends with a tax collector! The term "sinner" could mean someone who followed an unclean trade. Thus, the name of the gospel is part of the message of a demanding discipleship which includes all kinds of people. As Jesus says in reply to the scorn of the Pharisees: "I did not come to call the righteous but sinners!" The emphasis in the Gospel of Matthew is on maintaining a strong Jewish tradition while proclaiming the message of Jesus. The continuity of Jesus' with Moses and the Law is very clear. The structure of the gospel also communicates this! However, there is another way of appreciating and understanding this gospel - one that I experienced on a 1988 visit to the Holy Land. Part of the tour included a visit to the Mount of Beatitudes where tradition holds that Jesus preached his "Sermon on the Mount" (or at least the "beatitudes" part of it.). The day was clear and sunny. We celebrated Mass out of doors at a stone altar. It was one of those occasions where just being in the place made the teaching come alive. The otherwise implausible immediate response of Matthew to Jesus' call (getting up immediately...) seemed perfectly natural. Whoever Matthew/Levi may have been, the tradition preserved in the Gospel by that name retains its power to move hearts. Dominican tradition holds that St. Dominic kept a copy of the Gospel of Matthew with him along with the Epistles of St. Paul. For all of us, the Sermon on the Mount serves as a catechism and an examination of conscience. Read it through and then ask how it seems to you! AMEN
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