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| Rev. Fr. Augustine Vallooran V.C. |
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St Matthew is
mentioned in the gospels as one of the twelve apostles of Jesus.
St. Matthew is mentioned in the gospels as one of the twelve Apostles
of Jesus. The twelve Apostles were chosen by Jesus by name to be with Him and
to be sent out to preach the gospel. St. Matthew therefore belongs to the band
of the closest associates of Jesus and became the primary teachers of the
gospel message.
The biographical details that we know of St. Matthew are
minimal and fragmentary. He was born in Galilee as the son of Alphaeus. During
the Roman occupation of Palestine, Matthew was a government official with the
charge of collecting taxes from the Jews for Herod Antipas - the tetrarch of
Galilee. His tax office was located in Capernaum. As a tax collector, he was
despised by his own Jewish community and was considered an outcast.
The Gospels tell us that after his call, Matthew invited
Jesus home for a feast. His apostolic activity was first restricted to the
Christian communities of Palestine. His gospel is designed to convince the Jews
that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah - in whom all the promises of the
messianic kingdom are fulfilled. It is believed that after his apostolate in
Palestine, he went over to Ethiopia and even perhaps to Parthia and Persia
during the time of the persecution by Herod Agrippa in 42 AD.
“It Depends Not On Human Will Or Exertion, But On God Who Shows Mercy” (Romans 9:16)
St. Matthew, in his life and message, proclaims that
salvation of man is because of the Mercy of God. He should have been surprised
that Jesus invited him, who was regarded by his own tribe as a public sinner,
into the group of the chosen Apostles. He was a tax collector and as was usual
of that profession, he was dishonest and driven by greed until he was chosen as
a disciple of Jesus. The gospel tells us that Jesus met him in Capernaum in his
tax booth on the main highway. He must have been collecting customs duty on the
imported goods brought by farmers, merchants and caravans. According to the
Roman Empire's system of tax collection, a tax collector paid a huge amount as
tax revenue to the government and then would go about extorting unreasonably
high taxes from the citizens and travellers to ensure for himself a good
commission. They were protected by the Roman soldiers in their business.
Precisely because of this system, the tax collectors were notoriously corrupt
and because their decisions were enforced by Roman soldiers, no one could fight
them. Matthew was well aware that he did not deserve to be close to a godly
person like Jesus. However as soon as he was called by Jesus to follow Him, he
responded immediately. We learn three lessons about following Jesus.
The Good News of the Gospel is that it offers God's Grace not
depending on human merit. God does not exclude anyone from His friendship. In
fact, the Pharisees and the scribes were shocked that Matthew was included by
Jesus. In response to this Jesus said, "Those who are well have no
need of a physician but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous
but sinners."(Matthew 2:17) Matthew himself was deeply aware of his
unworthiness to be a disciple of Jesus. However, he was more impressed by the
fact of his special call to be in such a close association with Jesus. Hence he
was not ashamed of his sinful past - rather his past made him grateful for what
the Master had done for him. It is noteworthy that while Matthew avows that he
was a publican, the other evangelists do not mention this derogatory word about
him. This could have been because of the reverence and the honour they felt to
their brother evangelist. In fact, the word publican was so derogatory that it
is always used in the gospels in reference to the despised sinner. In the
gospels, several times the two words come together "publicans and sinners" (Matthew
9:10, Luke 15:1) as well as
"publicans and prostitutes" (Matthew 21:31).
However St. Matthew does not shy away to use this term about
himself because of the decision he had made to quit his past life and follow
Jesus. He responds instantly to the Call of Jesus. The gospels tell us, "He
rose and followed Him" (Matthew 9:9, Mark 2:14, Luke 5:28). It was an instant readiness to respond to the Call of Jesus
- leaving his tax accounts incomplete without the fear of his masters. This
ready obedience to the Call of Jesus meant abandoning everything especially
what guaranteed him a source of sure income. He did not weigh
the consequences of his obedience or calculate the possibilities of a certain
future. Moreover his response was a celebration for him because we are told
that he made a great feast in honour of Jesus in his house. It was during this
feast that, when the Pharisees and the scribes murmured about Jesus associating
himself with publicans and sinners, Jesus proclaimed the mystery of God's
heart, "I desire mercy not sacrifice." (Matthew 9:13)
The call and response of St. Matthew reveals the central
focus of our salvation. Our life in God depends on God's Mercy and not on our
merit. When God chooses us and we respond generously to His Call, even our
painful and sinful past experiences will bathe in the Glory of the Mercy of the
Lord. We will then look back into the past not with shame and regret but with
an ineffable joy for having been forgiven by the Compassion of the Lord.
“Not By Works But By His Call” (Romans 9:12)
St. John Chrysostom commenting on the Call of the Apostles
explains to us that though these Apostles have a glorious name and rule in the
salvation history, their past was sinful or socially insignificant. While St.
Matthew was a tax collector and there was nothing more despicable than that; Peter, Andrew, James and John were called when
they were fishing which was considered a socially low profession in those days.
However the glory of their ministry comes from their call and their willingness
to respond wholeheartedly.
I know a businessman who is very committed to the Lord. He is
known for the charismatic gifts that the Holy Spirit has bestowed on him.
People approach him in the moments of their distress to be comforted and to be
guided. He has a way of telling them openly of his own past that was anything
but inspiring. He had an unholy affair and his prayer life was to the minimum.
His friends had led him to drinking and gambling habits. He was not honest in
his business either. That was when he met with a heavy loss in his business. In
desperation he came for the retreat as he did not know where else to go. Even
his wife and son had deserted him. His spiritual crisis led him to the retreat
centre. He was deeply moved by the experience of the Mercy of God. He came to a
painful realization that he had taken God for granted. His routine religious
observances were out of a custom rather than acts of faith. He realized how far
he was from God. It also occurred to him that his failure in business was a
blessing which brought him to the Lord. In that failure he felt the call of God
to turn to Him and to make Him the priority of his life. His return to the Lord
was complete and wholehearted! He spent a few months in the retreat centre and
with the help of the Fathers, he got his family back. He spent his time in
prayer and got a call from God to the ministry of counselling. He got attached
to the retreat centre and began his service of counselling for the retreatants.
Something striking about him was that he would tell his own conversion story
openly without any shame. When I spoke to him about this, his comment was that
all that he was, was God's work in him. He was an example of what God could
achieve with a human life. He would not take credit for his ministry. He is
grateful to God for all that He does in and through him.
“To Be Moulded As He Pleases” (Sirach 33:13)
Here indeed we touch the inner core of Christian life and
ministry. When we want to be what we want to be, we make a mess of our life.
When we surrender our life in the Hands of God, God is able to mould us
according to His Will. That is when God is able to achieve through our lives
what He wants of us. It is only then that we become relevant to and accept our
role in the Divine history of Salvation.
Once Matthew offered himself in the Hands of Jesus, there was
no turning back and he made sure that he did not want to go back to his old ways
by the grand celebration of his conversion in the banquet he held in his place.
It was the bidding of a farewell to his old friends and a declaration of his
new life. It was at this feast that he learnt the lesson of God's Mercy. From
then on his concern was to make Jesus known. As a tax collector, he would have
been fluent in Aramaic - the language of the people, and in Greek - the
language of the market place. He wrote his gospel for the sake of his own
people by demonstrating to them that Jesus was the Messiah awaited by the
Jewish nation. His gospel was the answer to the question posed by the disciples
of St John the Baptist, "Are you He who is to come or shall we look for another?"
(Matthew 11:3) Of the four evangelists it was Matthew who
proclaimed to the Jews that in Jesus, their hope of salvation was realized!
Even today, it is the Gospel of Matthew that reveals to us that our aspirations
for a meaningful life are fulfiled in Jesus Christ.
“Those Whom He Called He Justified And He Also Glorified” (Romans 8:30)
St. Matthew teaches us two lessons. Our present life is not
to be determined by our past. Whatever might have gone wrong in our past, we
shall not languish in guilt and shame. What is needed is to wait to hear the
invitation of the Lord, "Come and follow me". Our God is not a god of the past but the Lord of the
future. Every saint has a past and every sinner a future. The more we delay to
answer the Call of Jesus, the more wasted our lives will become. Following
Jesus will bring in glory to our life. We shall always be ready to rise up and
never be satisfied with the status quo. Great will be our future when we are
ready to follow Him.
Once Matthew followed Jesus, he was listening to the words of
the Lord. That is what is meant in being a disciple. Jesus said as recorded in
the Gospel of Matthew, “Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them
will be like a wise man who built his house on rock." (Matthew 7:24) Matthew not only
listened but wanted the whole world to hear the words of the Master and follow
the way of The Lord that leads to life. It was for this purpose that he wrote
the gospel. The concern of Matthew was that no distraction of the world should
deter a disciple of Jesus from following the Way of the Lord.
"The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the
house. But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock." (Matthew
7:25) What Matthew has achieved with his
discipleship was to make sure that those who followed Jesus will build their lives
solidly on the Word of God. A man who would have wasted his life by collecting
customs has made his life meaningful in the kingdom of God by gathering souls
for God!
Let Us
Pray
Help
me, Lord to wait on You, inviting the Holy Spirit – that God’s Own Power will
enlighten and come into my heart:
-That
I may be able to understand God’s Will.
-That I may be able to accept God’s
mission for my life.
-That
I may be able to hear God’s Call in my heart and in my life.
Open
my heart, O
God, for Your Own Spirit to come upon me.
Amen
