St. Matthew Joh 15,0-17

Matthew is always on the twelve chosen by Jesus (com. Mt 10.3; Mk 3.18; Lk 6.15; Sk 1.13). Its Hebrew name means “gift Yahveh “. The first canonical Gospel that bears his name presents us with an exact designation: “mythic “(Mt 10,3). In this way, he is identified with a person who sits at the toll booth and whom Jesus invites to follow him: “When Jesus left there, he saw a person named Matthew sitting on the toll booth and said to him: “Come see me!” He got up and followed him “(Mt 9.9). Also, Marek (com. 2,13-17) and Luke (com. 5, 27-30) mention the profession of the publican but call it “Levi “. “From this memory, a certain doubt was born in the identification of the apostle Matthew with the publican Levi. This identification is specific to the first Gospel because it attaches the name “Matthew “to the designation “mythic. “To imagine the scene described in the ninth chapter and the ninth verse of Matthew’s Gospel, it is enough to recall the beautiful image of Caravaggio, which is kept here in Rome in the Church of St. Louis of France.

We find another biographical feature in the Gospels: the narrative of Matthew’s calling is preceded by a scene about the miracle of Jesus performed in Capernaum (com. Mt 9.1-8; Mk 2.1-12) and the proximity of the Sea of Galilee, i.e. Lake Tiberias (com, is mentioned. Mk 2,13-14). We can conclude that Matthew was a tax collector in Capernaum, located” by the coast “(Mt 4,13), where Jesus was a constant guest in Peter’s house. Based on these simple findings, we can continue our thinking. The first is that Jesus accepted into the group of his closest people, who, according to the Jewish traditional understanding at that time, were considered a public sinner. Matthew not only managed money that was considered impure because of its origin from people alien to God’s people but also worked with foreign representatives, the ones who were hated because of their greed and whose contributions could also be fixed arbitrarily.

For these reasons, the Gospels speak unanimously several times about “mythnics and sinners “(Mt 9.10; Lk 15.1) and “mythnics and prostitutes “(Mt 21.31). In addition, they see an example of pettiness in tollbooths (por. Mt 5.46: they love only those who love them) and mention one of them, Zacchaeus, as the “chief publican, very rich “(Lk 19.2), while popular opinion called them “blackmailers, unjust and adulterers “(Lk 18,11). Based on these allusions, the first fact that appears before our eyes is that Jesus does not exclude anyone from his friendship. On the contrary, when he is at the table in the house of Matthew-Lévi, whoever spoke about the scandal that he is meeting unsuitable people responds with this significant statement: “The healthy do not need a doctor, but the sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners “(Mk 2,17).

The Gospel’s correct proclamation involves offering God’s grace to the sinner! In the famous parable of the Pharisee and the publican who came to pray in the temple, Jesus even refers to the anonymous publican as a valuable example of humiliated trust in God’s mercy. Meanwhile, the Pharisee boasts of his moral perfection. “The mythical man stood at the very back and did not even dare to raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breasts and said: God, be merciful to me sinful mu. “And Jesus comments like this: “I tell you: This one went home justified, and not that one. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted “(Lk 18,13-14). In the person of Matthew, the Gospels, therefore, offer us a fundamental paradox: those who are outwardly far from holiness can even become a model of accepting God’s mercy and thus show its effect on their own lives.

In this context, St. John Chrysostom draws attention to one crucial fact: he notes that in the narratives about the vocation of the apostles, only some mention the work that the persons in question performed. Peter, Ondrej, Jakub, and Ján are called when fishing, and Matthew when he collects taxes. These are jobs that don’t carry much weight – states Chrysostom – “because there is no more disgusting job than collecting tolls and nothing more ordinary than catching fish “(In Matth. Hom.: PL 57, 363). Therefore, Jesus’ call is also intended for people in the lower ranks of the social ladder while waiting for daily work. Another idea from the Gospel narrative is that Matthew immediately answered Jesus’ call: “he got up and followed him “. The shortness of the phrase highlights Matthew’s readiness to answer the call.

For him, this means abandoning everything, especially what guaranteed him a safe income, even if he was often undeserved and dishonest. Matthew understood that intimacy with Jesus did not allow him to maintain an activity God disagreed with. It is very easy to apply this closure to the present. Even today, clinging to things that do not combine with following Jesus is not permissible, as is the case with dishonest wealth. He once bluntly said: “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have, give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come and follow me! “(Mt 19,21) This is precisely what Matthew did: he got up and followed him! We can understand the word “vital “as moving away from sin and, at the same time, consciously clinging to a new existence. It was not by chance that the evangelist used the Greek verb anastás. The same verb expresses Jesus’ resurrection in another place in the New Testament!

Finally, let us recall that the tradition of the ancient Church agrees that it attributes authorship of the first Gospel to Matthew. We already find it with Bishop Papiah of Gerapoli in Frigia, who wrote around 130: “Matthew collected the words (Lord) in the Hebrew language and translated each as ved “(in Eusebio di Cesarea, Hist. Eccle. III,39,16). Historian Eusebius adds this message: “When Matthew, who first preached among the Jews, decided to go to other nations, he wrote the Gospel in his native language, which he also proclaimed; so he tried to replace in writing those he left with what they were losing with his departure “(ibid., III, 24.6). We no longer have the Gospel that Matthew wrote in Hebrew or Aramaic, but in the Greek Gospel that we have, we can, in a certain way, hear the convincing voice of the publican Matthew, who, when he became an apostle, continued to proclaim God’s saving mercy. Let us listen to this message of Saint Matthew and meditate on it constantly so that we too may learn to rise and follow Jesus firmly”.