By José Ricardo Bezerra and Felipe Bezerra
Presentation
After some time, we see the green of the vestments again. There were the six weeks of Lent, the Paschal Triduum, the seven weeks of Eastertide up to Pentecost and, last Sunday, the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. Anyone who is used to going to Mass only on Sundays may not even remember the last time they saw the priests’ green vestments. And this weekend we make up for missing it.
On this 10th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year A) we return to the Gospel of Matthew, and we find the account of the call of Matthew himself. For this Sunday we have chosen five points, drawn from the five verses of Mt 9:9-13, for you to meditate and pray. And we offer a suggested title: more than “the call of Matthew,” this could be the “Sunday of Mercy of Ordinary Time,” because it is here that Jesus says he desires mercy, and we will see him showing mercy to everyone.
Introduction: humility is truth
Many, many years ago, in the last century, when I was a disciple of the Community, we had an evangelization work in a very poor little place, near the Discipleship house (then called the Novitiate) of Quixadá. There, where we went, there was always a group of men playing cards and drinking, because they had no work, a group of children, and a group of women inside the houses. I always went to the group of children, told the Bible story and played with them. But one day, I am not quite sure why, I ended up sitting with the group of men who were drinking and playing. One of the girls came up to me with a look of enormous disappointment and said: “Are you drinking, young man?” I explained that I was not, that I was only sitting there, talking with them.
At that moment something dawned on me. I thought: this must have been more or less how the Pharisees thought of Jesus. “How does he get involved with those people? How is this man, said to be righteous, sitting among sinners?” And I was not even drinking, yet my mere presence there already caused a shock. So as not to scandalize the child, I had to explain everything. Jesus, however, does not explain or soften anything, and he could have said: “Did you find it offensive? Then know that these people will reach Heaven before you!”
In these years of formation on the life of prayer, I have heard many people say: “This prayer is doing no good; the more I pray, the more of a sinner I see myself to be.” But that is exactly it. When Saint Teresa of Ávila says that “humility is truth,” this is what she means: the truth is that we are sinners. If you think you are (almost) without sin, it is a sign that you are not praying well, because, praying well, you would recognize yourself as a sinner in need of God’s mercy. Jesus did not come to call the saints, he came to call sinners. Whoever is forgiven little loves little; whoever is forgiven much loves much (cf. Lk 7:36-50). If you think you have no sin to be forgiven, how will you love God? All of this is deeply interconnected, and it touches our own story closely.
Five points to meditate
1. Jesus who sees Matthew seated
“Jesus saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post.” (Mt 9:9). This is the scene of Caravaggio’s beautiful painting, which shows Jesus pointing his finger and Matthew, astonished, as if asking: “Me?” The Gospel says that Jesus saw, but, from Matthew’s side, what happens is that he feels seen, looked upon and loved by Jesus. From this is born the mercy that he will keep in his heart. And Jesus sees him in the situation he was in, seated in his sin, at the customs post.
This is the basic principle of the life of prayer, the teaching of Saint Teresa of Ávila: “I ask only one thing of you, sisters: that you let yourselves be looked upon by Him.” Stop and let Jesus look at you. Sometimes we are so noisy in prayer, wanting to talk, talk, talk. Calm down and look at Him who looks at you. They asked Saint John Mary Vianney what he did before the Blessed Sacrament, and he answered: “I look at Him, and He looks at me.” The one who taught him this was a peasant who spent hours in silence in the chapel. With this first point alone there is already much to pray about: “Jesus, here I am.”
2. “Follow me”
When Jesus says, simply, “Follow me” (Mt 9:9c), it all seems very easy: Matthew leaves everything and follows him. But following Jesus is not easy. It was not for Matthew, and it is not for anyone. Whoever wishes to follow him must take up his cross; following implies trials and difficulties. For Peter, Andrew, James and John, who left their boats and their profession to follow the Master, it was also costly. When the Lord intervenes in our life, he turns everything upside down, and that is not always in the snap of a finger.
In concrete life, many people who feel called to a specific vocation will go through a long journey. In the Shalom Community there is a year of vocational discernment, the time of postulancy (one to two years), then initial formation (nine years, in some cases up to fifteen years) to arrive at last at the Definitive Promises. Matthew got up and the next day was already one of the apostles, but, in the Word, everything is concentrated. It is possible that he had already heard Jesus speak about what it meant to be his disciple. When on that day the Lord sees him seated and says to him “Follow me,” that was the moment of decision. At the Last Supper Jesus will say to the twelve: “It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you.” (Jn 15:16).
3. He got up and followed Jesus
In Greek and in several languages, the verb “to get up” is the same as “to rise from the dead”; they are synonyms. We can think of Matthew as practically dead, seated in his sin, and, when he gets up, it is like a resurrection and he begins to live again. Matthew, from being seated, was raised up and received new life to follow the Lord. And he soon begins to evangelize: he invites his tax-collector friends to dine with Jesus.
Once again, take this to your prayer. Is it not time for you to get up, to leave your comfort, to let Jesus raise you up (bring you back to life) and to follow him again? Perhaps you think: “But I am already converted, I already have my parish, my prayer group, my cell…” We always need conversion, as Daniel Ramos tells us in the book “The Conversion of the Converted,” for because of the sin in us we are always going astray and always in need of returning to the Lord’s path. Let us remember Jesus’ word to the disciples asleep in the Garden: “Get up! Let us go!” (Mt 26:46).
4. Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do
“Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do.” “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mt 9:12-13). Jesus calls everyone sick and sinners, and indeed we are. Saint John says, in his first Letter, that whoever claims to have no sin is a liar (cf. 1 Jn 1:10). Saint Paul writes to the Romans that there is not a single righteous person, that all have sinned (cf. Rom 3:23). Here, the “righteous” whom Jesus did not come to call are the Pharisees who considered themselves holy, justified.
If you do not recognize yourself as a sinner, Jesus seems not to have come for you; if you do not think yourself sick, the physician can do nothing. It is the phase of denial that some sick people go through when facing a serious illness. Someone once asked what Jesus had saved us from, and the answer was: he saved us precisely from thinking that we did not need to be saved. This is the pride of those who are self-sufficient, the sin of the first Adam, of disobedience and of having wanted to be like God, deciding for themselves what is good and what is evil. The one who knows what is best for us is the one who created us. If you want to take good care of your car, you should consult the manual of the one who made it; if you want to take good care of your life, listen to the one who created you. God loves us exactly as we are, but he loves us too much to leave us as we are.
5. I desire mercy, not sacrifice
Quoting Hosea 6:6, Jesus says: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” (Mt 9:13). This is why we call this the Sunday of Mercy of Ordinary Time: Jesus shows himself merciful to Matthew, whom he calls to follow him; also to Matthew’s friends, the tax collectors, by sharing a meal with them; to the Pharisees, to whom he gives the chance to recognize themselves as sinners in need of grace; and he is merciful to us, who hear this Word from two thousand years ago and feel it touch our hearts.
In saying that he desires mercy and not sacrifice, Jesus does not condemn the sacrifices of the Old Testament, which were necessary for a time within the divine pedagogy. He himself is the one priest, the Lamb and the altar (cf. Heb 7:7; 13:10), and he gathers in himself the whole of the ancient sacrifice. And he still invites us, as Saint Paul writes to the Romans, to offer ourselves as a living and holy sacrifice, which is our spiritual worship (cf. Rom 12:1). But mercy comes first: to be merciful as the Father is merciful (cf. Lk 6:36). The Lord makes it rain on the good and the bad (cf. Mt 5:45), he is good to all and shows no partiality (cf. Acts 10:34). He knows that we are all sick and that we all need a physician. The secret of everything is to recognize that we are sick and that we need Him: it is there that we find our salvation.
Steps of the Lectio Divina
To pray with this Gospel, withdraw to a quiet place, make the sign of the cross and ask the Holy Spirit to open your heart. Then go calmly through the five steps of the Lectio Divina.
1. Reading (Lectio): what does the text say?
Read Mt 9:9-13 without haste, once or twice, in a low voice. Try to place yourself in the scene, noticing the details: Jesus passes by, sees Matthew seated at the customs post, calls him, and Matthew gets up and follows him. Notice Jesus’ words to the Pharisees about sickness and the physician, mercy and the call to sinners. Do not yet look for any application; simply listen to what is written and let a word or a gesture catch your attention.
2. Meditation (Meditatio): what does the text say to me?
Now return to that word which touched you and let it shed light on your life. You are Matthew seated at the customs post, in your sin, and Jesus looks at you with mercy. In what situation does He find you today? Where do you recognize yourself as sick and in need of a physician? Where is there still that pride of one who thinks himself righteous and self-sufficient? Let the Lord show you the truth of your heart, which is the humility of which Saint Teresa spoke.
3. Prayer (Oratio): what do I say to God?
Respond to God from what you have meditated. Give thanks that He sees you and loves you exactly as you are. Ask forgiveness for thinking yourself without sin or for resisting the call. Ask for the grace to get up, to let yourself be raised to life and to follow him. Beg for the healing of your physical and spiritual ailments. Speak with Him simply, in your own words, like Matthew who got up and followed him.
4. Contemplation (Contemplatio): remaining in God’s gaze
Be silent and simply remain before Him, like the peasant of Saint John Mary Vianney: “I look at Him, and He looks at me.” It is not the time to speak much, but to let yourself be looked at and loved by Jesus, letting his mercy rest in your heart. From this encounter is born the concrete desire to live the mercy you have received, being merciful as the Father is merciful.
5. Action (Actio): what God asks you to carry out
In your examination of life, make a good examination of conscience and seek the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Remember some friend who has drifted away from the faith and try to be an instrument of God, first by praying for him and then by sending him a message or an invitation to a snack or an evangelization event. Let the Holy Spirit move you.
To go deeper
In each of these five points there is much to dive into. Take the text and pray calmly; let the Spirit lead you to the passages of Scripture that we only mention here: the First Letter of Saint John, Saint Paul’s Letter to the Romans, the Letter to the Hebrews, Hosea, and the Gospel of Matthew itself, which places his call among the first miracles of Jesus, right after the Sermon on the Mount.
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Podcast video: https://youtu.be/_sCLhQgJs7A with subtitles you can select for your language.
