The Call of Matthew 

   “As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post.  He said to him, ‘Follow me.’  And he got up and followed him.” (Matt 9: 9 – 9) 

   Today the Church celebrates the feast day of St. Matthew.  He was a tax collector, a Jew who many Jews hated even more than they did the Romans.  He was a traitor, working for those who were oppressing Israel.  He would not have been allowed to enter the temple and his only friends would have been other tax collectors and sinners.

   Why would Jesus choose such a man to become one of His apostles?  He knew that this would be seen as an insult to all Jewish people, including the other apostles He had called to follow Him.  Yet, He chose to do so, and Matthew followed.

   There is a valuable lesson to be learned from Jesus’ calling of Matthew; no one is so vile, so hated, even so full of sin that they can’t be called by our Lord.  The call of Christ is more than words, it’s a call to the heart and soul.  As St. Augustine wrote, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”  Our soul longs for the call of the Lord even when our humanity is in the depths of sin and depravity.

   When criticized for associating with tax collectors and sinners, Jesus said, “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do.” (Matt 9: 12).  There is no sin so terrible, no act such an abomination that we cannot receive forgiveness when we turn to Christ in sorrow and repentance.  When we think we are beyond saving we need to remember the call of Matthew.