The call of Matthew

Saturday,
January 18, 2020
1st Week in Ordinary Time
First Reading: 1 Sm 9:1–4, 17–19; 10:1
Gospel Reading: Mk 2:13-17
WHEN Jesus went out again beside the lake, a crowd came to him and he taught them. As he walked along, he saw a tax collector sitting in his office. This was Levi, the son of Alpheus. Jesus said to him, “Follow me.” And Levi got up and followed him. And it so happened that while Jesus was eating in Levi’s house, tax collectors and sinners were sitting with him and his disciples for there were indeed many of them. But there were also teachers of the Law of the Pharisees’ party, among those who followed Jesus, and when they saw him eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, “Why! He eats with tax collectors and sinners!”
Jesus heard them and answered, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor, but sick people do. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
Matthew betrayed his own people because as a tax collector he imposed on them exorbitant taxes. This is over and above his perfidious act of serving the Romans who were oppressors of his own countrymen. To the Jews he was not just an outcast; he was as good as dead. But not to Jesus who believed in Matthew’s capacity to change. To him, Matthew was not a hopeless case. It was thus that Jesus called him to conversion even as he was sitting on his tax collector’s post. This call hit the right chord. Matthew responded to the call and changed for the better.
Hardened sinners can change both at the social and spiritual level. At the social level we can cite as example the dancing inmates of the Cebu provincial detention center. The dancing did not only flex the muscles of inmates but also strengthened the fibers of discipline in them, bolstered teamwork among them and enlivened the dying embers of their hope for acceptance in society. The program was so successful that one mother even requested for the extension of his son’s prison term believing he was better off inside than outside prison walls.
If dance can rehabilitate criminals, imagine what the grace of God can do to sinners. By God’s grace Matthew became no ordinary disciple; he became one of the four evangelists entrusted with handing down to us the Word. In modern times we can revisit the lives of saints. Their stories tell one and the same thing: the marvels grace can do to people who remain open to God’s call.
Like Matthew let us remain open to the work of grace and allow God to do the impossible in our lives. Remaining close will frustrate that divine power owing to God’s great respect for human freedom. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., J.D., D.M.