The context: Today’s Gospel episode of Matthew’s call as Jesus’ apostle reminds us of God’s love and mercy for sinners and challenges us to practice this same love and mercy in our relations with others. The call and the response: Jesus went to the tax-collector’s station to invite Matthew to become his disciple. Since tax-collectors worked for a foreign power and extorted more tax money from the people than they owed, the Jewish people, especially the Pharisees, hated and despised the tax collectors as traitors, considered them public sinners, and ostracized them. But Jesus could see in Matthew a person who needed Divine love and grace. That is why, while everyone hated Matthew, Jesus was ready to offer him undeserved love, mercy and forgiveness. Hence, Matthew abandoned his lucrative job, because, for him, Christ’s invitation to him, to become Jesus’ follower, was a promise of salvation, fellowship, guidance and protection. Scandalous partying with sinners. It was altogether natural for Matthew to rejoice in his new calling by celebrating with his friends who were also outcasts. Jesus’ dining with all these outcasts in the house of a “traitor” scandalized the Pharisees, for whom ritual purity and table fellowship were important religious practices. But they asked, not Jesus Himself, but the young disciples, “Why does your master eat with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus, coming to the rescue of his disciples, cut in, and answered the question, stressing his ministry as healer: “Those who are well do not need a physician; the sick do.” Then Jesus challenged the Pharisees, quoting Hosea, “Go and learn the meaning of the words, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice’” (Hosea 6:6). Finally, Jesus clarified his position, “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” [After the Ascension, Saint Matthew remained for over ten years in Judea, writing his Gospel there in about the year 44. Then he went to preach the Faith in Egypt and especially in Ethiopia, where he remained for twenty-three years. The relics of Saint Matthew were for many years in the city of Naddaver in Ethiopia, where he suffered his martyrdom, but were transferred to Salerno in the year 954].
Life messages: 1) Jesus calls you and me for a purpose: Jesus has called us through our Baptism, forgiven us our sins, and welcomed us as members of the Kingdom. In fact, Jesus calls us daily through the Word and through his Church, to be his disciples and, so, to turn away from all the things that distract us and draw us away from God. 2) Just as Matthew did, we, too, are expected to proclaim Christ through our lives by reaching out to the unwanted and the marginalized in society with Christ’s love, mercy and compassion. (Fr. Tony) (http://frtonyshomilies.com/) L/20
Sept 22 Tuesday: Lk 8:19-21: 19 Then his mother and his brothers came to him, but they could not reach him for the crowd. 20 And he was told, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, desiring to see you.” 21 But he said to them, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.” USCCB video reflections: http://www.usccb.org/bible/reflections/index.cfm
The context: As Jesus became a strong critic of the Jewish religious authorities, his cousins, bringing his Mother with them (as a wedge in the door, so Jesus would listen to them?) came to take him back to Nazareth by force, perhaps because they feared that he would be arrested and put to death
Jesus’ plain statement: Today’s Gospel episode seems to suggest that Jesus ignored the request of his mother and close relatives who had traveled the long distance of twenty miles, probably on foot, to talk to him. But everyone in the audience knew how Jesus loved his mother and had taken care of her until he started his public ministry. Besides, Jesus’ plain answer, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it,” was indeed a compliment to his mother who had always listened to the word of God and obeyed it. It also dismissed, without mentioning them, all claims kindred might make which would interfere with His Messianic Mission. In other words, Jesus was declaring, “Blessed are those who heard and kept the word of God as Mary was faithfully doing” (Vatican II, Lumen Gentium, 58). Jesus was also using the occasion to teach his listeners a new lesson in their relationship with God. Being a disciple of Jesus, or a Christian, means first and foremost having a deep, growing and personal relationship of love and unity with God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and with all who belong to God as His children. Jesus changes the order of relationships and shows us that true kinship is not just a matter of flesh and blood. God’s gracious gift to us is His adoption of us as His sons and daughters. This gift enables us to recognize all those who belong to Christ, actually or potentially, as our brothers and sisters. Our adoption as sons and daughters of God transforms all our relationships and requires a new order of loyalty to God and His Kingdom in absolute, unquestioned, first place. Everyone who does the will of the Father, that is to say, who obeys Him, is a brother or sister of Christ, because he or she is like Jesus who fulfilled the will of his Father.
Life messages: 1) Let us remember that by Baptism we become the children of God, brothers and sisters of Jesus and members of the Heavenly family of the Triune God. Hence, we have the two-fold obligation to treat others with love and respect and to share our love with them by corporal and spiritual works of mercy.
2) Let us grow as true disciples of Jesus by becoming hearers as well as doers of the word of God. (Fr. Tony) (http://frtonyshomilies.com/) L/20Sept 23 Wednesday: (St. Pius Pietrelcina, Priest (www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-pio-of-pietreocina/ (Lk 9:1-6): 1 And he called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, 2 and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal. 3 And he said to them, “Take nothing for your journey, no staff, or bag, or bread, or money; and do not have two tunics. 4 And whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart. 5 And wherever they do not receive you, when you leave that town shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them.” 6 And they departed and went through the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.
Life messages: 1) Let us remember that by Baptism we become the children of God, brothers and sisters of Jesus and members of the Heavenly family of the Triune God. Hence, we have the two-fold obligation to treat others with love and respect and to share our love with them by corporal and spiritual works of mercy.
2) Let us grow as true disciples of Jesus by becoming hearers as well as doers of the word of God. (Fr. Tony) (http://frtonyshomilies.com/) L/20
Sept 23 Wednesday: (St. Pius Pietrelcina, Priest (www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-pio-of-pietreocina/ (Lk 9:1-6): 1 And he called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, 2 and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal. 3 And he said to them, “Take nothing for your journey, no staff, or bag, or bread, or money; and do not have two tunics. 4 And whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart. 5 And wherever they do not receive you, when you leave that town shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them.” 6 And they departed and went through the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.