Today the Universal Church commemorates the Feast of St Matthew, who is the author of one of the four gospels. Artists have illustrated Matthew throughout the centuries as a “winged man”…Matthew was a tax collector…A known sinner, who was despised by his own people…But at the prompting of Christ…”Follow me”…Matthew left everything…How does a man who is rich and worldly do that?…Something must have been “missing” in his life…Matthew had “everything” but at the same time…..He had nothing!…So many today in the world we live in can probably say the same thing….But Jesus came for that very reason…..He came for sinners…He came for Matthew…He came for us.
“As Jesus passed by, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post. He said to him, "Follow me." And he got up and followed him.”
I find it interesting how some of the greatest sinners hear the words of Jesus and drop everything…..What is it that makes one person “hear something” in mere words and another person ignore those same words?…….It has everything to do with our heart…This is why Jesus said…”My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me”….”The Truth” is almost like a fire that burns within the heart and when one hears it….Its impossible to turn from it…The Truth is almost haunting in a sense…It refuses to release us from its grasp…It calls us deeper within it….Like St Matthew, many to this very day experience such an “encounter”
On the surface, we may see one thing but God sees something else…God sees the human heart…Even if a person may “appear” lost….Underneath all the “rubble" of a mis-spent life lay in wait a treasure to be unearthed
So as the gospel today from Mass unfolds…….Upon hearing the words of Christ, Matthew who was a rich man throws a party…And when one throws a party, they invite all their friends…Well, Matthew’s friends were known publc sinners…So they all came to the party…Jesus was at the party too….When the “respectable people” of their town saw this they criticized Jesus who was “making himself out to be a holy man”….."Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”…….These so called “respectable people” considered themselves to be on the side of God…….Do we do the same thing as these men?….Do we write people off?….Do we judge them as “no good”? Do we “think” we are “better” then others?
When I was the driver for the Missionaries of Charity in Manhattan, I always found it interesting to see how the sisters would live among and served some of the most unlikely of people…Drug addicts, Ex-convicts, Open homosexuals….They did not approve or condone their behavior…However, they served these men without compromising their own belief system….They did not think themselves better and they walked and lived among them….Why would someone “so far from God” ever want to be around such a holy group of nuns?…The answer is - The sisters saw something in these men that they did not even see themselves…The sisters saw God in them - A pure heart does not judge - A pure heart loves!….God is in each of us…Even the “worst of the worst “ of us…Under all the layers of sin…God is there!….Only love can untwist such a person…………..”Telling them” they are wrong…”Preaching” to them…Will never do it….The sisters simply loved “these people” by their actions and service towards them…They do not judge “these people”…...Ask yourself - Why did many of “these people" respond and some even change?…..Because everyone is “looking for love” - The problem is many times we “look” in the wrong places but when we encounter real and true love - It stops traffic!….Its like a "thunderbolt" that crashes down upon us!…..And in time….Those same “bad people” changed….They too came to see what the sisters saw
He heard this and said, "Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. Go and learn the meaning of the words, I desire mercy, not sacrifice. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners."
St Matthew was a public sinner and Christ used this man to write one of the great books of the Bible…..Jesus saw in Matthew what no one saw…Not even Matthew himself saw what “could be”…How many Matthew’s are walking around today?….An encounter with a holy person is very powerful…A holy life witnessed in real time is very attractive…Its something we all want for ourselves even if we do not admit it…No words, no books written, no words said can be a substitute for the witness of a holy life…This is how the world can and will change….The witness of a holy people…This is why Christ came…This is why only saints change the world….And this is why even the “greatest of sinners” can and do change to this very day - Just like Matthew the tax collector……Do we know the meaning of mercy?…..Do we know that Jesus did not come for the righteous but sinners?….If we do know this - Many “say” they know this…Do we then include ourself among the “ranks” of these sinners…Do we “walk among them”?……And if we do…Do we seek God’s mercy for not only them but ourself as well?
"Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”…….”Go and learn the meaning of the words, I desire mercy, not sacrifice”
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