Meditation for the Feast of St. Matthew
“For I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance”
The Gospel story for the Feast of St. Matthew is the call of Matthew to discipleship in Christ. In a way, his call is altogether about the resurrection of Christ in us and about our being with Christ. The commemoration of St. Matthew illumines the very nature of salvation for us.
And all because Jesus is simply passing by, the Jesus who is always passing by. It all seems so casual, so accidental, so incidental but, to the contrary, Jesus’ passing by is not casual; it is essential. That is to say, it belongs to the very principle of God who is life itself, who is always active, and never static, and whose activity is always purposeful and therefore, always requires a response.
For Jesus’ passing by is not without consequence. Something happens. He glances upon us. “Salvation begins by our being seen by Jesus, by his turning toward us his compassionate eyes”. Here Jesus “saw a man named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom,” at the tax collector’s bench. Everything unfolds from that glance of Jesus.
