“While he was at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat with Jesus and his disciples” (MT 9:10).
We as the Church, followers of Jesus, still have much to learn from Jesus. Today’s reading provides another wonderful example. Once Jesus begins his public ministry he is constantly on the go. Going where? Meeting people in the midst of their daily lives as he did with Matthew. And what is the response to Jesus calling Matthew, a tax collector, and then partaking in table fellowship with other tax collectors and sinners?
Matthew accepts his invitation to follow. The Pharisees question the disciples about his practice and curious onlookers follow at a distance. But to those who have, maybe for the first time in their lives, been respected as fellow human beings, their response is hope. A hope that there actually may be a path leading in from the peripheries. A hope that they no longer have to be on the outside looking in. A hope that they, for the first time in their lives might finally belong.
Jesus is shown time and again encountering the person as they are in their present circumstances and the chaos of their lives. He welcomes, is present, and embraces each person as they are. Yet he doesn’t want them to stay where they are. He invites people to be part of something greater than their self-absorbed posture, their self-imposed and/or externally imposed limitations and instead to actualize their potential and embrace a life of meaning and purpose. The only requirement is that they are willing to: repent, be forgiven, be healed, be loved, be human, be free, and once experiencing this encounter with Jesus, share what they have received with others.
When we are willing to hear Jesus say, “Follow me.”, then follow, and become Jesus’ disciples as Matthew did, then we can experience the same hope for a new beginning. To follow, we must have the humility to recognize our sinfulness and our wounds. We need to recognize our need to repent, need for healing, our dependence on and need for God as well as his love, more than anyone or anything else. When we do so, healing begins. We are then able to let go of the apparent goods that we thought brought us happiness but instead led us astray. We will renounce disordered affections and false hopes so our desires may be properly ordered.
Only in God alone will we find our fulfillment, hope, and security. Jesus invites us to experience: “one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:4-6). This is the promise and fulfillment that no other pursuit or person can bring. God is the foundation and source of all, and at the same time he knows each and every one us better than we know ourselves. God invites us to grow in our relationship so that we can know, love, and serve him.
The Son, was sent by the Father, not to condemn, but to save us by revealing the lies and showing us the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus draws close to us as he did with Matthew, he experiences the chaos of our lives, and loves us in the range of the fullness of our humanity and invites us to experience something better. He calls us too to follow him. When willing, we will experience mercy, forgiveness, healing, and transformation as Matthew did. Jesus not only calls us be also sends us to be beacons of light, hope, and love for those in need of the Father’s forgiveness, healing, peace, and rest.
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Painting: Close up of “The Calling of St. Matthew”, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, 1600. Jesus calls us to follow him as well. Will we respond as Matthew did?
Spiritual Stepping Stones 