today's readings are Ephesians 4, Psalm 19 and Mt. 9: 9-13
Of all the fascinating choices Jesus made to fill the roster of the 12 Apostles, Matthew had to be the real shocker. Why? Becasue of his profession - a tax collector. Such people worked for the Roman Empire but in the area of the Holy Land, would have been Jewish. By the population they were viewed as traitors for working for the despised Romans, and cheats, for the way they would overcharge the population while collecting the Roman taxes. Matthew was very aware of this but somehow had set aside any sense of conscience to take up such a profession.
He most likely have been aware of the work of Jesus before he was called. And no doubt he would have been shcokd that Jesus would have wanted him to be part of this group. hence, the surprised look on his face as depicted by Michelangelo Carravagio's masterpiece, The Calling of St. Matthew (as depicted above). In the painting Matthew points to himself as if saying, "Who, me?"
Yes, him. Certainly not the holiest candidate out there. But he was called. And he answered.
You were called, too, dear reader. On the day you were concieved, the day you were born, the day you were baptized. Called by Jesus to come and follow Him. The question is: Will you?
P.S. On Saturday afternoon our internet, due to a local outage, went down for 48 hours. Obviously this affected our ablility to livestream the Sunday mass, for which I am sorry. God bless you.