Introduction to St. Matthew
Today is the feast of Saint Matthew or in a couple of Gospel’s he is called Levi.. Well I am sure by now we are used to the idea of 2 names in many of the biblical characters. So that one is fairly simple. The Jewish Levi and the Greek Matthew.
Why is the tax collector hated?
What may not be so clear is why there is so much focus upon the Tax Collector. Earlier this month I was not too happy about paying my Real Estate taxes to the collector. but whatever my thought is on the taxes themselves… I can pretty much rest assured that the position is collecting what he is supposed to collect based on the mathematical formula that the office is given. There is a system of checks and balances.
The tax collector, which we see in the Gospels, seem to be despised hated and lumped in with an outsider so evil, no one will talk or even eat in the same room. But why?
The taxes that were collected in the Biblical days were a quite different story than they are today. For example, Rome would determine we need to raise $1 million dollars. But the Romans were smart as well… why send a Roman soldier to do this and be possibly attacked, hit or injured? The people already dislike us, why give them another irritant. Let us sent someone from Judea to collect from the Judeans…someone from Galilee from the Galileans…someone who speak the language and know who is who. They are less likely to hurt one of their own…. Well that was the way it started at least.
Greed
But these tax collectors were, well greedy is the word. Well if we have to collect $1 million dollars, why not collect 1 ¼ million dollars and I turn in the million and well… keep the rest…. This included their salary, but did stretch that to include much more.
And this indeed was what they did. So, the people eventually found out about this little scheme. But the reality was the tax collector was backed by the Roman army…there was nothing physically they could do… so they shunned him and treated him like the less than ideal person he was.
Jesus Heals
So today we hear that Jesus simply looked at Matthew and said, “Follow me.” Matthew stood up and did just that.
Was he beginning to recognize that money was not going to take care of things?
Did He begin questioning taking money for himself that was rightfully his fellow Jews?
We do not know. It says he got up and followed him. Whatever it was he had that change of heart we look forward to in all sinners… Oh yeah.. all of us…
The Pharisees looked on but seemingly could not believe that there could be a change of heart. They looked with disdain all of the sinners and tax collectors that were sitting with Jesus.
We should recognize at this same time that the Judaic formula for forgiveness is very different from our Christin upbringing. There is a difference between sins against God and those against another human. For those against other human beings, traditionally forgiveness could obviously be sought by an offender at anytime, but a special focus was sought during the period between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Prayer was done to help remind those who the person had wronged… Forgiveness was requested by the offender. And then three possibilities;
- 1.) it could be acknowledged and the offender forgiven.
- 2.) Acknowledged but not forgiven or
- 3.) Simply Unacknowledged
Apparently in some traditions, once you ask 3 times from the heart and are not forgiven you are still atoned for the sin by God.
What should we do?
It may sound a bit strange to us… but we should all be doing the same thing only daily, hourly or even sooner if needed. Each day we should be examining our own consciences, seeking forgiveness from the person you offended and then take these same offenses to God through his Church to seek His forgiveness. We go to the Church for the sacrament of confession. We cry to God, Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son.’ We should not forget by offending one of His children we are offending Him as well.
In Matthew, we see the opposite of the young rich man walking away from Jesus with his possessions (Matt 19:22)… we see a man walking toward Jesus leaving everything behind. Isn’t this the change of heart that we heard about also in last Sunday’s Gospel of the Prodigal son?
The son, like Matthew, (and hopefully each one of us) finally recognized that temporal pleasure was not going to bring true happiness. But only by being with the Father will our soul and eternity be healed.
See today’s reading for the Feast of Saint Matthew .http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/092119.cfm