Feast of Saint Matthew, Apostle and evangelist
Paul tells us in today’s first reading: I, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received.
And what a call it is! Though we, like the apostle Matthew, should rightly be reckoned among the tax collectors and sinners of Jesus’s day, in the riches of his mercy the Lord Jesus has called each and every one of us to follow him as his disciple. He has offered his life for us, given us a share in his resurrection, and made us adopted children of his own heavenly Father; moreover, he has anointed us with his own Holy Spirit, the Advocate and Spirit of Truth who will lead us into all truth.
Like the apostolic generation, we called to the task of sharing the Good News to the ends of the world, as today’s Psalm says. We are to be, as Pope Francis says “missionary disciples,” Christians filled with the joy of the Gospel and ready to share it by word and deed with every creature under earth, until we all attain to the unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the extent of the full stature of Christ.
Today, let us ponder the greatness of this call that the Lord Jesus makes to each one of us and to all humankind, asking that we might not be deaf to the Lord who calls us but rather prompt and ready to do his most holy will (Spiritual Exercises, no. 91).