People leave their jobs for all sorts of reasons: more pay, better opportunity, a shorter commute.   Today’s saint left his job for a better boss. Matthew was at work in the city of Capernaum, a bustling town with a customs house.  It was just another day, and Matthew was going about his job of collecting taxes.   Nearby, Jesus was doing his job too, curing a paralyzed man.   It was an ordinary day for both of them.   But after performing His miracle, Jesus walked down the main street of Capernaum, caught sight of Matthew sitting outside of the customs house, and then…the normal day ended.   Jesus said to Matthew – simply, directly, and forcefully, “Follow me.”   And then, something quite astonishing happened.   Matthew followed Him.   Fistfuls of Roman coins may have spilt from his hands, or he may have swallowed a lump in the back of his throat, quickly adjusted his tunic, and then scurried to walk in the small clouds of dust that puffed up behind Jesus as His sandals slapped the dry ground.   In an instant, Matthew’s life changed – forever.   He had become a follower, a disciple, of the most important man in the history of the world.

The Gospel of Matthew nowhere mentions that it is written by a man named Matthew.   But it was attributed to him very early on in the life of the Church.   It was compiled certainly by the year 80 A.D., at the very latest.   Matthew’s Gospel is clearly written by a Jew, for Jews.   Matthew wrote his Gospel for Jewish people who had become followers of Christ.   He wanted his Judeo-Christian communities to know that Jesus is the Messiah that God had promised to send to save all people.   He does this by presenting the genealogy of Jesus, and describing the Incarnation of Jesus by focussing on Joseph and his dreams, rather than Mary’s conversations with the angel Gabriel, and her cousin Elizabeth. His Gospel makes clear that Jesus was truly God and truly human, and that Jesus is the fulfilment of everything said by the prophets in the Jewish scriptures.

Matthew is the only one of the four Evangelist who shares all the eight beatitudes with his readers.  His Gospel faithfully details how Jesus described who will be blessed by God in the Kingdom, and the attitudes and actions that are lived out by those who follow the new law by loving both God and neighbour.

After Jesus’ Ascension, Matthew preached the gospel in the early Christian communities that he established in Ethiopia and other parts of the African continent.   Tradition tells us that he died a martyr.   Matthew’s Gospel is the only one which identifies him as a tax collector.   Mark and Luke both refer to him as ‘Levi’, which may well have been his birth name, while Matthew (“gift of Yahweh”) was his post-conversion name.     After his big moment in Capernaum, Matthew’s name consistently appears in the Gospels’ lists of Apostles, but yet little more is said about him. 

Christ passes by in every life.   Everyone has their chance to say “Yes” or “No,” to stay or follow, to change or remain the same. That moment may come only once and never return – in my own case it was the sudden and late call to Ordination!   Sudden callings, and rapid conversions, are rare, but they do happen.   A life is more likely to plot gradually up or down like a line on a graph than to take a sharp right angle in either direction. Matthew’s life angled sharply when his personal trajectory intersected with Christ’s.   The moment is captured in all of its drama by the painter Caravaggio in his ‘Calling of Saint Matthew’. A broad shaft of light beams through the room from above Christ’s head.   His bony finger points to a well-dressed man at a table, with his hands over a pile of coins.   The scene unfolds, not in the street, but in a darkened room.   Light and darkness play. Sin and virtue tussle.   Past, present, and future hang in the balance.   Christ seems to say, “Will you take and eat, will you go and sell, will you come and follow me?”   Difficult, challenging questions.   But Matthew gave the difficult, generous answer in response, and we remember him today due to that one moment.  

Matthew was different from the other Apostles.  Many people felt, and with some justification,  that he was wholly unworthy to be a chosen as a follower of Jesus because he worked for the hated Romans as a tax collector, and therefore in their eyes he was not only a sinner but a traitor!

Once Matthew begins to follow Jesus, he holds a dinner for other tax collectors and sinners.   The Pharisees complained about Jesus eating with sinners.   But Jesus responded, “For I have come to call not the righteous, but sinners to repentance”.

The symbol for Matthew’s Gospel is a man with wings.  Matthew is the patron saint for accountants, bankers, bookkeepers and, believe it or not, tax collectors!

I believe that our own story parallels the life of St. Matthew. Despite our faults and failures, we are called by Jesus to be evangelists.   As a visible expression of God’s love to the people in our neighbourhood, with our limited but valued resources, through our dedication to the Church and to one another, we are living the beatitudes.

Let us pray:

Saint Matthew, you made the right decision at the right time, and so changed your life and those of millions of others who know Christ because of you.   Help us to recognize when a pivot point arrives in our own lives; when we must change direction, and help us to choose that direction well.  Amen