Feast of Saint Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist
He got up and followed Him
He worked as a tax collector. He could write and count, which was not a common skill at the time. He booked income, wrote monotonous columns: name, surname, guilty, paid or not paid. He was counting the money. I don't think he was liked and respected by the people. After all, he was an official of the invader. Such people are always suspected of dishonesty and betrayal.
The laconic description of his calling is shocking. “Jesus saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post. He said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him". Is it possible? Just like that, leave everything behind and follow the Stranger. Maybe he had known Jesus before, maybe he had listened to His teachings, maybe this decision had matured in him for a long time. Maybe it was so. Or rather, a dislike for himself was growing in him, to his customs chamber, which was becoming a cage in which he choked more and more. Hence such a sudden, bold decision.
Perhaps that is why the Gospel is so sparing in words, reduced only to what is most important, that the listeners can find themselves more easily in it. Their own case, their story. Because I also have my own customs chamber. A comfortable place for my habits, addictions, comforts, greater or lesser compromises with evil. My safe space, where everything is reasonably arranged, but sometimes there is no oxygen. That's where Jesus comes. Looks at me. Gaze. This is the gist. God always sees me. That's true. But I pretend that I don't remember it. We don't need words; we need to be together. Have the courage to meet God. So that he can look at us. Matthew didn't even have to move. He only looked up briefly from his papers and money. One single look was enough. Spark jump. A touch of grace. The beginning of a new life.
He became one of the Twelve. He wrote the Gospel. So, he went back to writing. But these were no longer billing bars, but words that brought life.
Not only the words and deeds of Jesus are in the Gospel, but it is also the faith of Matthew, his love for the Master. The word of God is also a human word. The Gospels are not an official letter from Above, an objective relation, a cold description. It is wonderful that we can also feel the pulse of the faith of human authors in them.
I can also be an evangelist. All we need to do, is look over the threshold of our own home, look at the world through the eyes of Jesus ...
Until Tomorrow
fr. george