Feast of Saint Matthew

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. While he was at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat with Jesus and his disciples. The Pharisees saw this and said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 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.”

I asked the children at the Mass this morning to image a group of doctors who decide to go on a mission trip to a poor nation in Africa to share their talents and resources. When they arrive to Africa there are long lines of people waiting to see them, some had traveled for days bringing their sick to be healed. The first patient, an old crippled man with sores all over his body, walks into the room. The doctor looks at him and says, “this guy is sick, I don’t want to see him. Get him out of here and let the next person in.” Next came in a mother with a baby. The child was running a high fever and had a terrible rash. The doctor said disappointed, “this one is also sick. Can’t you bring me some healthy people?”

“What is wrong with this picture?”, I asked the children. A second grader raised her hand immediately and said, “doctors are supposed see the sick, not healthy people.” It wasn’t a difficult question, but it’s great to see the simplicity of the logic of the Gospel at work in the mind of a child.

It wouldn’t make sense for Jesus to go to the righteous in the same way it doesn’t make sense for the doctors of my story to go to the healthy. God has become man because we are sick spiritually and we need healing. God comes to us because we are sinners, not because we are righteous. If we were sinless, we would have no need for redemption, we would have no need for Christ.

Saint Paul teaches us that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The feast of Saint Matthew reminds us that Jesus calls all of us, we who are sinners, to follow Him. Jesus calls each one of us, with our faults and weaknesses, to follow Him. If we wait until the day we are perfect to follow Him, we will die waiting. We start where we are and Jesus will lead the way, in the same manner he called Matthew, a hated tax collector, and transformed his life in such a way that Matthew willingly gave his life as a witness for Christ.

Martyred on September 21st in Ethiopia according to the Roman Martyrology, Saint Matthew’s body was transferred to Salerno in southern Italy by 954 AD. Today, the remains of Saint Matthew are found in the crypt of the Cathedral of Saint Matthew in Salerno (pictured below), a quick train ride south of Naples near the beautiful and famous Amalfi coast.

Saint Matthew, pray for us!