Feast of Saint Matthew, Apostle, and Evangelist
Jesus asks many questions and gives many blunt directions to the apostles and disciples throughout the four gospels. Questions like “Who do you say that I am?” or “Can you drink the cup I must drink?” Directions like “Let the dead bury the dead.” or “Pick up your cross and follow me.” But in today’s reading, he perhaps gives the most challenging command when he calls Matthew. He simply says, “Follow me”.
Peter, James, John, and Andrew are called from their nets, but Matthew, also known as Levi, is called from a very lucrative, if not despised, government job as a tax collector. Peter, James, John, and Andrew could go back to their professions and did so on several occasions. Still, for Matthew, answering the call to follow Jesus meant turning away and not being able to go back, giving up everything he enjoyed. It meant losing income, position, prestige (among his fellow collectors), and power. He sacrificed it all to follow someone he had just met simply on hearing the words “follow me.” He even gives himself a retirement dinner, inviting his fellow collectors and Jesus to celebrate his change of occupation—faith in action at its best.
How much have we given up to follow Jesus? Have the tenets of our faith excluded us from job opportunities? Has our faith caused friendships to dissolve or family ties to become strained? Jesus never promised that the call to follow him would be an easy decision or would not cause problems. But he did promise that those who believe will have eternal life.
Matthew gave up everything to answer the call. He heard those two simple words “follow me” and did. Those are perhaps the most complex words to obey, but they are an invitation to the most sumptuous banquet ever given. Accept the invitation and live lives filled with the joy that only saying yes can provide.
Let us pray:
Heavenly Father, Saint Matthew heard your Son’s call to follow him and said yes. Help us answer that call each day with as much enthusiasm as Matthew and live our lives sharing our yes with others so that they may also hear those words and turn to Jesus. We ask this in his name. Amen.
