Daily Reflection Friday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Today’s gospel passage from Matthew 9 about the call of Matthew is found in all three Synoptic gospel accounts, although the Apostle is called Levi in Mark and Luke. It is the only other account in the Synoptics about an Apostle’s calling other than the call of Peter, Andrew, James and John in Matthew and Luke.

It is virtually the same in all three Synoptics (although Luke alone tells us that “He got up, left everything and followed Jesus.”) except for a very important addition found only in Matthew’s account at the end. The story preceding it in all the Synoptics is a very significant one, but Matthew’s little addition makes it even more so. Jesus finds Matthew, a tax collector, at his “table” collecting taxes. As almost everyone knows, tax collectors in ancient Jerusalem were always recruited from the local people. The Romans believed that local tax collectors would not arouse as much animosity as Roman ones would. Thus, fellow Jews whom the Romans recruited were paid well to compel their Jewish neighbors to pay the heavy Roman taxes. Since the Romans were occupiers and kept the famous pax Romana with an iron fist and boot, tax collectors were considered something like traitors and were deeply hated by all Jews in Israel. 

Therefore, for Jesus to call Matthew to be one of his disciples and then, even worse, attend a banquet Matthew threw for him attended by other tax collectors and “sinners” (a term that encompassed several types of people who somehow worked for the Roman authorities), was seen by the Pharisees as a grave transgression against the Mosaic law, since to dine with public sinners implied approval of their sin. In short, the Pharisees were quite shocked by Jesus’ behavior here.

But Jesus somewhat turns the tables on their condemnation by telling them that it is the sick who precisely need healing from the doctor (God, being the implication) and they are whom Jesus has come to call, the sinner and the fallen, not those who think themselves righteous.

This is a great spiritual truth. It is not that we must somehow first become worthy to gain God’s love and care. It is the complete opposite. God has come to us, sending God’s only Son to us, precisely while and because we were sinners; that we were lost and could not save ourselves or make ourselves worthy. God and God’s love has saved us from sin and death that was the lot of the entire human race (“All have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.” Rom 3:23). Therefore, God makes us holy, not ourselves. We cannot make ourselves holy in any way. God sets us free, free to love God and neighbor as Jesus has loved us and that is what makes us holy (“Holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life.” Lk 1:75). 

Then Jesus adds, in Matthew’s account, “Go and learn the meaning of the words, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ I Did not come to call the righteous but sinners.” Jesus is evidently quoting from Hosea 6:6. True religion shows compassion to the sinner. It never judges, never looks down from spiritual pride. This also brings to mind Amos 5:21-24 that says in part, “I hate, I scorn your festivals… When you bring me burnt offerings, your oblations, I do not accept them… but let justice flow like water.” And Psalm 40 says, “He drew me up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Sacrifice and oblation you did not desire, but you gave me an open ear.” And David says famously in Psalm 51, “For you have no delight in sacrifice; burnt offering from me you would refuse; my sacrifice, a contrite spirit; a humbled, contrite heart, O God, you will not spurn.”

In the final case, mere religious practices are devoid of meaning if not accompanied by the Spirit of repentance, mercy, forgiveness and love. Jesus was merciless with the very religious Pharisees, those “whitewashed tombs” who “love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Hipocrites!” And Paul to the Corinthians always rings in our ears, “If I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.” Finally, Jesus said of the woman sinner who anointed his feet with her tears, “Therefore, I tell you, her sins, her many sins, must have been forgiven her since she has shown such great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.”