Homily for Feast of St. Matthew

Homily for the Feast of St. Matthew

Sept. 21, 2023
Eph 4: 1-7, 11-13
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph Residence, N.R.

Calling of St Matthew

(Jan Sanders van Hemessen)

Our collect this morning credits God’s “untold mercy” in choosing Matthew the tax collector as an apostle.  The patristic reading in the Divine Office today is from a homily of St. Bede that Pope Francis made famous by using a phrase from it as his episcopal motto.  The reading begins by quoting from Matthew’s Gospel that we just heard:  “Jesus saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax office, and he said to him:  Follow me.”  Then Bede comments:  “Jesus saw Matthew, not merely in the usual sense, but more significantly with his merciful understanding of human beings.  He saw the tax collector and, because he saw him thru the eyes of mercy and chose him, he said to him:  ‘Follow me.’  This following meant imitating the pattern of his life…” (LOH 4:1418).

Brothers and sisters, we rejoice that our Lord Jesus has looked with that same mercy and has chosen us.  Sinners we are, like Matthew but each of us in our own way, but Christ looks on us with the same love that attracted Matthew and calls us, too, to follow him by “imitating the pattern of his life.”

St. Paul advises us what that pattern is:  “Live in the manner of the call you received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another thru love, striving to preserve the unity of the Spirit thru the bond of peace” (Eph 4:1-3).  If we strive to do that, we “hold firm in following” the Lord, bound to him in unity by his holy Spirit, and we’ll mature fully in Christ (cf. 4:13).