9. And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he said to him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him.
10. And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many Publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples.
11. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to his disciples, Why does your Master eat with Publicans and sinners?
12. But when Jesus heard that, he said to them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.
13. But go and learn what that means, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
CHRYS; Having wrought this miracle, Christ would not abide in the same place, lest He should rouse the envy of the Jews. Let us also do thus, not obstinately opposing those who lay in wait for us. And as Jesus departed thence, (namely from the place in which He had done this miracle,) he saw a man sitting at the receipt of custom, Matthew by name.
JEROME; The other Evangelists from respect to Matthew have not called him by his common name, but say here, Levi, for he had both names. Matthew himself, according to that Solomon says, The righteous man accuses himself, calls himself both Matthew and Publican, to show the readers that none need despair of salvation who turn to better things, seeing He from a Publican became an Apostle.
GLOSS; He says, sitting at the receipt of custom, that is, in the place where the tolls were collected. He was named Telonarius, from a Greek word signifying taxes.
CHRYS; Herein he shows the excellent power of Him that called him; while engaged in this dangerous office He rescued him from the midst of evil, as also Paul while he was yet mad against the Church. He said to him, Follow me. As you have seen the power of Him that calls, so learn the obedience of him that is called; He neither refuses, nor requests to go home and inform his friends.
REMIG; He esteems lightly human dangers which might accrue to him from his masters for leaving his accounts in disorder, but, he arose, and followed him. And because he relinquished earthly gain, therefore of right was he made the dispenser of the Lord's talents.
JEROME; Porphyry and the Emperor Julian insist from this account, that either the historian is to be charged with falsehood, or those who so readily followed the Savior with haste and temerity, as if He called any without reason. They forget also the signs and wonders which had preceded, and which no doubt the Apostles had seen before they believed. Yea the brightness of effulgence or the hidden Godhead which beamed from His human countenance might attract them at first view. For if the loadstone can, as it is said, attract iron, how much more can the Lord of all creation draw to Himself whom He will!
CHRYS; But why did He not call him at the same time with Peter and John and the others? Because he was then still in a hardened state, but after many miracles, and great fame of Christ, when He who knows the inmost secrets of the heart, perceived him more disposed to obedience, then He called him.
AUG; Or, perhaps it is more probable that Matthew here turns back to relate something that he had omitted; and we may suppose Matthew to have been called before the sermon on the mount; for on the mount, as Luke relates, the twelve, whom He also named Apostles, were chosen.
GLOSS; Matthew places his calling among the miracles; for a great miracle it was, a Publican becoming an Apostle.
CHRYS; Why is it then that nothing is said of the rest of the Apostles how or when they were called, but only of Peter, Andrew, James, John, and Matthew? Because these were in the most alien and lowly stations, for nothing can he more disreputable than the office of Publican, nothing more abject than that of fisherman.
GLOSS; As a meet return for the heavenly mercy, Matthew prepared a great feast for Christ in His house, bestowing his temporal goods on Him of whom he looked to receive everlasting goods. It follows, And it came to pass as he sat at meat in the house.
AUG; Matthew has not said in whose house Jesus sat at meat (on this occasion), from which we might suppose, that this was not told in its proper order, but that what took place at some other time is inserted here as it happened to come into His mind; did not Mark and Luke who relate the same show that it was in Levi's that is, in Matthew's house.
CHRYS; Matthew being honored by the entrance of Jesus into his house, called together all that followed the same calling with himself; Behold many Publicans and sinners came and sat down with Jesus, and with his disciples.
GLOSS; The Publicans were they who were engaged in public business, which seldom or never can be carried on without sin. And a beautiful omen of the future, that he that was to be an Apostle and doctor of the Gentiles, at his first conversion draws after him a great multitude of sinners to salvation, already performing by his example what He was shortly to perform by word.
GLOSS; Tertullian says that these must have been Gentiles, because Scripture says, There shall be no payer of tribute in Israel, as if Matthew were not a Jew. But the Lord did not sit down to meat with Gentiles, being more especially careful not to break the Law, as also He gave commandment to His disciples below, Go not into the way of the Gentiles.
JEROME; But they had seen the Publican turning from sins to better things, and finding place of repentance, and on this account they do not despair of salvation.
CHRYS. This they came near to our Redeemer, and that not only to converse with Him, but to sit at meat with Him; for so not only by disputing, or healing, or convincing His enemies, but by eating with them, He often times healed such as were ill-disposed, by this teaching us, that all times, and all actions, may be made means to our advantage. When the Pharisees saw this they were indignant; And the Pharisees beholding said to his disciples, Why does your Master eat with Publicans and sinners? It should be observed, that when the disciples seemed to be doing what was sinful, these same addressed Christ, Behold your disciples are doing what it is not allowed to do on the Sabbath. Here they speak against Christ to His disciples, both being the part of malicious persons, seeking to detach the hearts of the disciple from the Master.
RABAN; They are in a twofold error; first, they esteemed themselves righteous, though in their pride they had departed far from righteousness; secondly, they charged with unrighteousness those who by recovering themselves from sin were drawing near to righteousness.
AUG; Luke seems to have related this a little differently; according to him the Pharisees say to the disciples, Why do you eat and drink with Publicans and sinners? not unwilling that their Master should be understood to be involved in the same charge; insinuating it at once against Himself and His disciples. Therefore Matthew and Mark have related it as said to the disciples, because go it was as much an objection against their Master whom they followed and imitated. The sense therefore is one in all, and so much the better conveyed, as the words are changed while the substance continues the same.
JEROME; For they do not come to Jesus while they remain in their original condition of sin, as the Pharisees and Scribes complain, but in penitence, as what follows proves; But Jesus hearing said, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.
RABAN; He calls Himself a physician, because by a wonderful kind of medicine He was wounded for our iniquities that He might heal the wound of our sin. By the whole, He means those who seeking to establish their own righteousness have not submitted to the true righteousness of God. By the sick, He means those who, tied by the consciousness of their frailty, and seeing that they are not justified by the Law, submit themselves in penitence to the grace of God.
CHRYS; Having first spoken in accordance with common opinion, He now addresses them out of Scripture, saying, Go and learn what that means, I will have mercy and not sacrifice.
JEROME; This text from Osee is directed against the Scribes and Pharisees, who, deeming themselves righteous, refused to keep company with Publicans and Sinners.
CHRYS; As much as to say; How do you accuse me for reforming sinners? Therefore in this you accuse God the Father also. For as He wills the amendment of sinners, even so also do I. And He shows that this that they blamed was not only not forbidden, but was even by the Law set above sacrifice; for He said not, I will have mercy as well as sacrifice, but chooses the one and rejects the other.
GLOSS; Yet does not God condemn sacrifice, but sacrifice without mercy. But the Pharisees often offered Sacrifices in the temple that they might seem to men to be righteous, but did not practice the deeds of mercy by which true righteousness is proved.
RABAN; He therefore warns them, that by deeds of mercy they should seek for themselves the rewards of time mercy that is above, and, not overlooking the necessities of the poor, trust to please God by offering sacrifice. Wherefore, He says, Go; that is, from the rashness of foolish fault-finding to a more careful meditation of Holy Scripture, which highly commends mercy, and proposes to them as a guide His own example of mercy, saying, I came not to call the righteous but sinners.
AUG; Luke adds to repentance, which explains the sense; that none should suppose that sinners are loved by Christ because they are sinners; and this comparison of the sick shows what God means by calling sinners, as a physician does the sick to be saved from their iniquity as from a sickness: which is done by penitence.
HILARY; Christ came for all; how is it then that He says He came not for the righteous? Were there those for whom it needed not that He should come? But no man is righteous by the law. He shows how empty their boast of justification, sacrifices being inadequate to salvation, mercy was necessary for all who were set under the Law.
CHRYS; Whence we may suppose that He is speaking ironically, as when it is said, Behold now Adam is become as one of us. For that there is none righteous on earth Paul shows, All have sinned, and need glory of God. By this saying He also consoled those who were called; as though He had said, So far am I from abhorring sinners, that for their sakes only did I come.
GLOSS; Or; Those who were righteous, as Nathanael and John the Baptist, were not to be invited to repentance. Or, I came not to call the righteous, that is, the feignedly righteous, those who boasted of their righteousness as the Pharisees, but those that owned themselves sinners.
RABAN; In the call of Matthew and the Publicans is figured the faith of the Gentiles who first gaped after the gain of the world, and are now spiritually refreshed by the Lord; in the pride of the Pharisees, the jealousy of the Jews at the salvation of the Gentiles. Or, Matthew signifies the man intent on temporal gain; Jesus sees him, when He looks on him with the eyes of mercy. For Matthew is interpreted ' given,' Levi 'taken,' the penitent is taken out of the mass of the perishing, and by God's grace given to the Church. And Jesus said to him, Follow Me, either by preaching, or by the admonition of Scripture, or by internal illumination.
Catena Aurea Matthew 9
Catholic Culture
Ordinary Time: September 21st
Feast of St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist
MASS READINGS
September 21, 2017 (Readings on USCCB website)
COLLECT PRAYER
O God, who with untold mercy were pleased to choose as an Apostle Saint Matthew, the tax collector, grant that, sustained by his example and intercession, we may merit to hold firm in following you. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
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Old Calendar: St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist ; Other Titles: Levi
At the time that Jesus summoned him to follow Him, Matthew was a publican, that is, a tax-collector for the Romans. His profession was hateful to the Jews because it reminded them of their subjection; the publican, also, was regarded by the pharisees as the typical sinner. St. Matthew is known to us principally as an Evangelist. He was the first to put down in writing our Lord's teaching and the account of His life. His Gospel was written in Aramaic, the language that our Lord Himself spoke.
St. Matthew
No one was more shunned by the Jews than a publican, who was a Jew working for the Roman enemy by robbing his own people and making a large personal profit. Publicans were not allowed to trade, eat, or even pray with others Jews.
One day, while seated at his table of books and money, Jesus looked at Matthew and said two words: "Follow me." This was all that was needed to make Matthew rise, leaving his pieces of silver to follow Christ. His original name, "Levi," in Hebrew signifies "Adhesion" while his new name in Christ, Matthew, means "Gift of God." The only other outstanding mention of Matthew in the Gospels is the dinner party for Christ and His companions to which he invited his fellow tax-collectors. The Jews were surprised to see Jesus with a publican, but Jesus explained that he had come "not to call the just, but sinners."
St. Matthew is known to us principally as an Evangelist, with his Gospel being the first in the New Testament. His Gospel was written in Aramaic, the language that our Lord Himself spoke and was written to convince the Jews that their anticipated Messiah had come in the person of Jesus.
Not much else is known about Matthew. According to tradition, he preached in Egypt and Ethiopia and further places East. Some legends say he lived until his nineties, dying a peaceful death, others say he died a martyr's death.
In the traditional symbolization of the evangelists, based on Ezech. 1:5-10 and Rev. 4:6-7, the image of the winged man is accorded to Matthew because his Gospel begins with the human genealogy of Christ.
Patron: Accountants; bankers; bookkeepers; customs officers; security guards; stock brokers; tax collectors; Salerno, Italy.
Symbols: Angel holding a pen or inkwell; bag of coins; loose coins; halberd; inkwell; king; lance; man holding money; man holding money box and/or glasses; money bag; money box; purse; spear; sword; winged man; young man; book; man sitting at a desk.
Things to Do:
- Do something for the needy: money for missions, donations of clothing or toys, canned goods drive, etc.
- Take time to read St. Matthew's Gospel, keeping in mind that St. Matthew depicts the humanity of Christ and emphasizes His physical sufferings. He makes frequent reference to the fulfillment of prophecies because he wrote to Jews and to Jewish Christians.
- Discuss St. Matthew's call from Christ "Follow me" with your children and how we are all called to belong to the family of God.
- Pray for people who work for financial institutions.
- Make Silver Dollar Pancakes, you can use this recipe on Catholic Cuisine's website or one of the suggestions we offer under recipes.
The Word Among Us
Meditation: Matthew 9:9-13
Saint Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist (Feast)
As Jesus passed by, he saw a man named Matthew. (Matthew 9:9)
Matthew probably had a lot of things going through his mind when he saw Jesus pass by. Let’s imagine that internal conversation:
“Oh no, he’s looking right at me. I’ve heard so much about this Jesus. People say he can heal any ailment and has even cast out demons. He doesn’t pull any punches but tells it like it is. He doesn’t seem to be cowed by anyone, neither religious leaders nor Roman occupation troops. In fact, I heard he even healed a centurion’s servant.
“But I feel stuck in the middle. I must turn over enough taxes to the Romans so that they won’t give my job to someone else, but I have to collect enough to provide for myself, don’t I? And if I’m not aggressive enough, other tax collectors are going to ruin my livelihood.
“Nobody likes to pay taxes. It’s the Romans’ fault, but I’m the one with my hand out, so my countrymen resent me. The religious leaders think I’m dirty because I work for the Romans and handle their money. It’s hard for me to have any self-respect.
“I’ll admit I’m curious about Jesus, but I’m also very busy. And yet, I can’t seem to look down and go on with my calculations. His eyes! It’s like he’s looking right into all the turmoil in my mind and heart, as if he knows I’m weary and fed up with it all, yet too weak to strike out in a different direction.
“When Jesus looks at me like that, all my pretenses drop away. I feel so hollow inside. This can’t be all there is to life! There must be something worth giving my whole life to.
“He’s about to say something: ‘Follow me.’ He’s talking to me! His voice isn’t loud, but suddenly those two words are echoing in my heart. This is the answer I’ve been looking for. I’m going to leave my books and my takings behind and go with him.
“There must be others who feel the same way I’ve been feeling. I want to invite some of the other tax collectors to dinner at my house. We’re not rivals anymore. I just want them to meet this man who can see right into my heart!”
Perhaps you are sitting at your “customs post” today. Lift your head and let Jesus look into your heart. He knows your weariness and confusion. He is offering you a role in building a kingdom that lasts forever.
“St. Matthew, pray for us.”
Ephesians 4:1-7, 11-13
Psalm 19:2-5
Regnum Christi
Feast of Saint Matthew, Apostle and evangelist
Father Barry O’Toole, LC
Matthew 9:9-13
As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post. He said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him. While he was at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat with Jesus and his disciples. The Pharisees saw this and said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” He heard this and said, “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. Go and learn the meaning of the words, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.”
Introductory Prayer: You are true goodness and life, Lord. Closeness to you brings peace and joy. You deserve all of my trust and my love. Thank you for the gift of life, my family and above all of my faith. I’m grateful too, for the gift of the Church which you founded on the Apostles.
Petition: Lord, help me to be simple and straightforward in my faith.
1. Simplicity Is Bliss: The tax collectors were considered traitors of the Jewish people since they were working for the Romans, the “oppressors” of God’s chosen people. The ordinary Jew would not even converse with one such as this. But Jesus says to him, “Follow me.” Matthew got up and followed him immediately, no questions asked, no conditions. What beautiful simplicity! He didn’t know that Christ was going to make him one of the Twelve. In a certain sense, we might say that he signed a blank check and gave it to Jesus. Matthew doesn’t sit down to calculate, he only accepts. He then goes a step further: He invites Jesus to his house for dinner. A Jew generally invited only his true and closest friends and relatives to dinner. It was a sign of intimacy, friendship and love. Matthew goes overboard and lays out the red carpet for Christ in his life.
2. Complicated Calculations: In contrast to Matthew’s straightforwardness, we see the Pharisees’ “righteousness.” Jesus’ dining with a sinner like Matthew is a scandal for them. They really have to confront this Rabbi about his “shameful conduct.” The problem is that they haven’t understood the first thing about the Messiah. Their very point of departure is flawed. They are looking at Christ (and God) from a very rational perspective when the only valid outlook is faith and love. This happens frequently in our lives as we begin to judge events, circumstances and others without faith and charity. Before we realize it, we may have rejected and possibly even defamed our neighbor, a civil authority, or a priest or bishop. We are not looking at things from a supernatural vantage point but rather from our merely human standards.
3. Back to the Basics: Christ puts everything back into perspective. “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. Go and learn the meaning of the words, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.” Once again Jesus invites us to elevate our thoughts to a supernatural plain. Why did God become man? We repeat it frequently, at least every Sunday in the Creed: “For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven.…” It is important to examine the degree to which I see and judge everything in my life through the prism of faith. A true believer, a real apostle, must form this “sixth sense” in all of his daily dealings. We form this habit through prayer, our frequent and intimate contact with God. We need to ask God for the gift of faith, which gives us a new perspective on life.
Conversation with Christ: Lord Jesus, I want to be a simple person, one who accepts you and your demands without calculations and complications. Free me from all impediments and grant me your grace so that I might become a convinced, faithful and intrepid apostle of your kingdom, as was St Matthew.
Resolution: In prayerful dialogue with God, I will examine at least three moments or events of my day. (This I can do even at home, in the car or waiting in line, etc.)
Image: St Matthew and the Angel | Guido Reni