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As Jesus passed by,
he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post.
Matthew had been surviving by living a life that wasn't capable of producing much satisfaction or contentment. He was complicit in the oppressive activity of worldly powers. He was a pariah to those who might otherwise have been his friends. He may have even internalized this image of himself as a traitor to his people. But the most difficult part may have been that there didn't seem to be a way out. It wasn't as if he could just go to confession and then enter back into the life of the Church as one of us might do if we needed to make a break with a life of sin. The people he betrayed, represented by the Pharisees, didn't want him back. They wanted to keep him as distant and isolated as possible.
He said to him, "Follow me."
And he got up and followed him.
When we consider how Matthew's life must have felt, and how inescapable it must have seemed, we can begin to perceive the amazing newness of the idea that someone like Jesus would extend an invitation even to a sinner such as he. Matthew had no idea that such a thing was possible. But in an instant he knew that it was meant to be. He hardly had to think twice about abandoning the customs post at which he had sat day in and day out. He knew that all too well that there was no lasting happiness to be found there. He can't have known much about what following Jesus would ultimately mean, or to where it would lead. But Jesus had chosen him, and in doing so opened up an entirely new horizon in his life. He did not hesitate to pursue such an opportunity.
While he was at table in his house,
many tax collectors and sinners came
and sat with Jesus and his disciples.
The fact that Matthew had a life as a sinner before he became a saint was not merely an unredeemable liability best forgotten. It was something that Jesus was able to take and use for the building up of the Kingdom. Matthew was a former sinner who came to Jesus, revealing to his friends and fellow sinners that none of them need remain stuck in their circumstances. Jesus had called Matthew. He was happy to share his table with friends from Matthew's former life, even while they were still sinners. This meant, of course, that Matthew was not a unique case. There was hope for every sinner. Jesus would welcome any and all who came to him.
The Pharisees saw this and said to his disciples,
"Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"
The professionally religious class was practically required to act scandalized by this lest they undermine their own apparent superiority. They had spent all of their effort to manufacture personas that were above and apart from the sinful unwashed masses. Jesus choosing to dine with sinners was an implicit criticism of this attitude of the Pharisees. They desired to be seen as superior to others. But Jesus was undermining that idea by welcoming all who came to him with sincere hearts.
Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do.
We have already said that the Pharisees weren't particularly interested in curing sinners. They maintained their status precisely by condemning them. But in their lack of compassion for others they also put themselves in a position where they couldn't recognize their own need for mercy. At the one end of the spectrum they wanted to insist on the condemnation of sinners. At the other they wanted to insist on their own righteousness according to the law. But they were wrong about their righteousness, particularly in the measure that they refused to show mercy.
Go and learn the meaning of the words,
I desire mercy, not sacrifice.
No amount of externally pious actions can cover for a life that is closed to mercy. Jesus was emphatic in his teaching that only those who would share the mercy they received were worthy of it.
I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.
This is good news for us to the degree that we recognize ourselves as sinners in need of grace. But it is a call to conversion for us when we still think of ourselves as doing fine on our own, already sufficiently good and righteous by our own actions and merits. We often prefer to not see the negative in ourselves. But we must at least know it to be there or we will forget to turn to Jesus and fall back in ourselves. This is why we all acknowledge, at every mass, that we are not worthy to receive Jesus. It is why even a great saint like Paul could still say, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost" (see First Timothy 1:15).
When we remember our dependence on Christ we can be assured of his presence, help, and fellowship. It is then that we become effective agents of his Kingdom and the gifts that he gives "for building up the Body of Christ" are activated.
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