From: Matthew 9:9-13

The Call of Matthew

[9] As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man called Matthew sitting at the
tax office; and He said to him, “Follow Me.” And he rose and followed Him.

[10] And as He sat at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sin-
ners came and sat down with Jesus and His disciples. [11] And when the Phari-
sees saw this, they said to His disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax
collectors and sinners?” [12] But when He heard it, He said, “Those who are well
have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. [13] Go and learn what this
means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners.”

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Commentary:

9. “Tax office”: a public place for the payment of taxes. On “following Jesus”, see
the note on Matthew 8:18-22.

The Matthew whom Jesus calls here is the Apostle of the same name and the hu-
man author of the first Gospel. In Mark 2:14 and Luke 5:27 he is called Levi the
son of Alphaeus or simply Levi.

In addition to Baptism, through which God calls all Christians (cf. note on Mat-
thew 8:18-22), the Lord can also extend, to whomever He chooses, a further cal-
ling to engage in some specific mission in the Church. This second calling is a
special grace (cf. Matthew 4:19-21; Mark 1:17-20; John 1:30; etc.) additional to
the earlier calling through Baptism. In other words, it is not man who takes the
initiative; it is Jesus who calls, and man who responds to this call by his free per-
sonal decision: “You did not choose Me, but I chose you” (John 15:16).

Matthew’s promptitude in “following” Jesus’ call is to be noted. When God speaks,
a soul may be tempted to reply, “Tomorrow; I’m not ready yet.” In the last analy-
sis this excuse, and other excuses, are nothing but a sign of selfishness and fear
(different from that fear which can be an additional symptom of vocation: cf. John
1). “Tomorrow” runs the risk of being too late.

As in the case of the other Apostles, St. Matthew is called in the midst of the or-
dinary circumstances of his life: “What amazes you seems natural to me: that
God has sought you out in the practice of your profession! That is how He sought
the first, Peter and Andrew, James and John, beside their nets, and Matthew, sit-
ting in the custom-house. And—wonder of wonders!—Paul, in his eagerness to
destroy the seed of the Christians” (St. J. Escriva, “The Way”, 799).

10-11. The attitude of these Pharisees, who are so prone to judge others and
classify them as just men or sinners, is at odds with the attitude and teaching
of Jesus. Earlier on, He said, “Judge not, that you be not judged” (Matthew 7: 1),
and elsewhere He added, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to
throw a stone at her” (John 8:7).

The fact is that all of us are sinners; and our Lord has come to redeem all of us.
There is no basis, therefore, for Christians to be scandalized by the sins of oth-
ers, since any one of us is capable of committing the vilest of sins unless God’s
grace comes to our aid.

12. There is no reason why anyone should be depressed when he realizes he is
full of failings: recognition that we are sinners is the only correct attitude for us to
have in the presence of God. He has come to seek all men, but if a person consi-
ders himself to be righteous, by doing so he is closing the door to God; all of us
in fact are sinners.

13. Here Jesus quotes Hosea 6:6, keeping the hyperbole of the Semitic style. A
more faithful translation would be: “I desire mercy MORE THAN sacrifice”. It is
not that our Lord does not want the sacrifices we offer Him: He is stressing that
every sacrifice should come from the heart, for charity should imbue everything a
Christian does — especially his worship of God (see 1 Corinthians 13:1-13; Mat-
thew 5:23-24).

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

Readings at Mass

First reading	Ephesians 4:1-7,11-13 ©

I, the prisoner in the Lord, implore you to lead a life worthy of your vocation. Bear with one another charitably, in complete selflessness, gentleness and patience. Do all you can to preserve the unity of the Spirit by the peace that binds you together. There is one Body, one Spirit, just as you were all called into one and the same hope when you were called. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God who is Father of all, over all, through all and within all.

Each one of us, however, has been given his own share of grace, given as Christ allotted it. To some, his gift was that they should be apostles; to some, prophets; to some, evangelists; to some, pastors and teachers; so that the saints together make a unity in the work of service, building up the body of Christ. In this way we are all to come to unity in our faith and in our knowledge of the Son of God, until we become the perfect Man, fully mature with the fullness of Christ himself.

Psalm	Psalm 18:2-5 ©

The heavens proclaim the glory of God.

The heavens proclaim the glory of God,

and the firmament shows forth the work of his hands.

Day unto day takes up the story

and night unto night makes known the message.

The heavens proclaim the glory of God.

No speech, no word, no voice is heard

yet their span extends through all the earth,

their words to the utmost bounds of the world.

The heavens proclaim the glory of God.

Gospel Acclamation	cf.Te Deum

Alleluia, alleluia!

We praise you, O God,

we acknowledge you to be the Lord.

The glorious company of the apostles praise you, O Lord.

Alleluia!

Gospel	Matthew 9:9-13 ©

As Jesus was walking on he saw a man named Matthew sitting by the customs house, and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he got up and followed him.

While he was at dinner in the house it happened that a number of tax collectors and sinners came to sit at the table with Jesus and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, ‘Why does your master eat with tax collectors and sinners?’ When he heard this he replied, ‘It is not the healthy who need the doctor, but the sick. Go and learn the meaning of the words: What I want is mercy, not sacrifice. And indeed I did not come to call the virtuous, but sinners.’