Follow Me

 

 

  Mt 9:9-13

The Calling of Matthew

⁹ As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.

¹⁰ While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. ¹¹ When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

¹² On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. ¹³ But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Today we celebrate the Feast of St. Matthew, one time tax collector and later, Apostle and Evangelist. We  owe much to him for his detailed account of the life of Jesus, his teachings, his miraculous cures, his suffering, death and resurrection.  What a story!  Where would we be without it? He immediately left all to follow Jesus and later pass on his experiences in writing to us. The popular TV series, THE CHOSEN, gives us a detailed picture of the "Pre-Follow Me Matthew", a tax collector becoming less and less enchanted with his profession.  He was ripe for the call and left all to follow it. It took courage and daring. Jesus still calls us to follow him in one way or another.  Are we ready to answer as did Matthew?  That's why taking time each day to LISTEN to Jesus, who still calls through the circumstances of our lives or directly via that "inner voice", is so important, so fundamental to our spiritual growth.  What is he calling me to today?

Bro. Rene 

Dear Jesus, when I hear your call, help me to answer it unreservedly as Matthew did. Amen.