My Thoughts on 21/09/2021

Today we keep the feast of St Matthew. We all know him as a tax collector. The account of his calling is described in one sentence. “As Jesus was walking on, he saw a man named Matthew sitting by the customs house, and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he got up and followed him.”

I imagine that as Jesus was passing his customs booth Jesus looked at him, or rather gazed at him with a look a love. He saw beyond the man who others saw as legally impure and socially outcast. As someone said, “inviting him to join the inner circle of disciples would be a gesture of of defiance to the established prejudice.”

At Mass today we pray that “by the example and prayers of St Matthew we will remain faithful in the service of the Lord”. We could in prayer imagine Jesus walking by us today, stopping and looking at us with love and inviting us today to follow him.

Let us pray for the grace today to say “Yes” again, to respond quickly and to be faithful to the end.