Day 17 -- Saint Matthew

"For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be."
Do you know who wrote this?

Or this: "Your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father."

The answer is Saint Matthew. Saint Matthew lived in Capernaum and was a tax collector. It was people like Matthew with who Jesus wanted to associate. When others called him a traitor, Jesus said, "I did not come to call the just, but sinners."

Matthew is mentioned in his own Gospel when Jesus called him to be one of his Twelve Apostles (9:9). Matthew recounts the genealogy of Jesus (1:1-17), gives us the story of the birth of Jesus (1:18-2:23), and gives us the Beatitudes (5:2-11). He gave us the Our Father in chapter 6. It is Matthew in chapter 15 who gives us one of the stories of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes.

Matthew wrote to convince his Jewish readers that Jesus was the Messiah. He preached to the Jews for fifteen years. His Gospel was written before the year 70AD...the time of the destruction of the city of Jerusalem.

Like Mark, Luke, and John, Matthew is depicted in art with one of the four living creatures from Revelation 4:7. The one that accompanies him is in the form of a winged man....like the one from Rembrandt here to the right. This is called The Evangelist Matthew Inspired by an Angel which was painted in 1661.

Some of my favorite Scripture verses come from Matthew:

• "You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden" (5:14)
• "So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect." (5:48)
• "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened unto you." (7:7)
• "Do not be afraid" (10:31)
• The Parable of the Sower (ch. 13) reminds me of my Encounter with Christ retreat in college.
• When Peter walks on water in chapter 14.

And my favorite response in the Mass is "Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed." This comes from Matthew 8:8 when we read "Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed."

Let us as Catholics not be afraid to pick up our Bible and read the stories of Jesus from people who actually lived with him. Even a few sentences a day can help in our formation as Catholic Christians.


PRAYER
O Glorious Saint Matthew, in your Gospel you portray Jesus as the longed-for Messiah who fulfilled the Prophets of the Old Covenant and as the new Lawgiver who founded a Church of the New Covenant. Obtain for us the grace to see Jesus living in his Church and to follow his teachings in our lives on earth so that we may live forever with him in heaven. Amen.


QUOTE
“Jesus saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax office, and he said to him: Follow me.” Jesus saw Matthew, not merely in the usual sense, but more significantly with his merciful understanding of men.” He saw the tax collector and, because he saw him through the eyes of mercy and chose him, he said to him: “Follow me.” This following meant imitating the pattern of his life - not just walking after him. Saint John tells us: “Whoever says he abides in Christ ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” “And he rose and followed him.” There is no reason for surprise that the tax collector abandoned earthly wealth as soon as the Lord commanded him. Nor should one be amazed that neglecting his wealth, he joined a band of men whose leader had, on Matthew’s assessment, no riches at all. Our Lord summoned Matthew by speaking to him in words. By an invisible, interior impulse flooding his mind with the light of grace, he instructed him to walk in his footsteps. In this way Matthew could understand that Christ, who was summoning him away from earthly possessions, had incorruptible treasures of heaven in his gift.
from a homily by Saint Bede