Solemnity of St. Matthew
[In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.]. You all are probably aware that I’m a big fan of country music. And I would argue that the first couple of country music right now are Tim McGraw and Faith Hill. In 2007 they released a song together called, “I Need You.” And the refrain goes, “So I need you. // Like a needle needs a vein / Like my Uncle Joe in Oklahoma needs the rain / I need you. / Like a lighthouse on the coast /…I need you.”
No doubt, St. Matthew had tried to fill up his life with other things. He was a tax collector for an occupying government, which probably meant that he didn’t have a lot of Jewish friends, at least not the kind that went to synagogue. Perhaps Matthew thought that, as long as he had to be under an oppressive government, he would at least get a little ahead by working for them. Recall, too, that tax collectors generally made their money from charging more than the taxes, so they could pocket the difference. But that money did not satisfy him fully.
We don’t know if St. Matthew was married, but, by tradition, only John was unmarried. Let’s hope that Matthew had a happy marriage, maybe even had a few kids. But he knew that even those goods of family life could not fully satisfy him.
Matthew was a man in need of a savior. He knew it, even if he couldn’t put his finger on what would satisfy that need until our Lord came and called him. But once Christ did call Matthew, everything was changed, and Matthew had to leave behind everything else and follow our Lord.
Christ said today that He did not come to call the just, but sinners. What is it about the just that tends to leave them outside the call of Christ? They don’t feel they need Him. Does that mean that Christ did not come for the holy? How can one be holy without God’s help? Those who are convinced of their own righteousness do not look for a savior, because they feel they have saved themselves by their own good deeds. Those who are models of holiness, the saints, always recognized their need for God, and that they could not be holy without Him. They mourned even their venial sins because they recognized how even those small sins hurt God. The saints knew throughout their lives that they needed a savior, even as they advanced in their relationship with God.
The fulfillment of the realization that Matthew needed a savior was so powerful that Matthew wrote a Gospel about the God-Man who changed his life by a simple call. He wrote down the stories that we have learned from childhood: the visit of the Magi; the Sermon on the Mount; the call of St. Peter to be the first pope; part of the words of Institution in the Mass; the great commission to “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” He organized his account of the Gospel in a way that people would see in the Lord the fulfillment of the promise of Moses that God would raise up another prophet, to whom the Chosen People needed to listen. Indeed, it seems to be divided into five parts, just like the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Tanakh, the Jewish scriptures.
That fulfillment that St. Matthew found also made his passion and martyrdom worth the price. Nothing was more precious than the gift of a savior that Matthew had found in our Lord. Everything else, to use the words of his fellow apostle, Saint Paul, was as rubbish when compared with the treasure Matthew had found in Christ.
So, do we need a savior? No matter what our virtues or the ways we say yes to God, do we still recognize that we need Him? Do we still cry out to Him for mercy that justifies us, that puts us in right relationship with God? Or do we feel like we can handle things on our own without God?
Do our hearts still yearn for a deeper relationship with God to fill the holes in our hearts that no material goods can satisfy? When our Lord calls us in our custom’s post, are we ready to respond because we know we need Him?
And as we find that fulfillment, do we then respond by sharing that good news, that evangelium, with others? Is the joy in our heart from knowing Christ so great that we can’t help but share it with those we meet? Or do we keep our light under a bushel basket, and allow our salt to grow tepid? Would we be willing to give up our lives for our Lord, or do we serve other lesser gods in our life? Do we need Jesus? If so, then together, as a parish, let us follow Him, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit reign, unto the ages of the ages. Amen.