I Desire Mercy!

Friday, July 4, 2025

Gen 23:1-4, 19; 24:1-8, 62-67; Mt 9: 9-13

Today’s Gospel highlights the call of St. Matthew.

The text shows that the call that Matthew received was Jesus’ own initiative which completely overlooked his past as a tax collector of the Roman regime. But for Jesus’ generous initiative, Matthew would not have been an apostle. 

Matthew’s inclusion as an apostle shows that God’s mercy reaches beyond human imagination. A selfish determination of who would be the recipients of our charity or compassion is a human trait. But God’s love favors everyone without any partiality. 

We may approach Matthew’s call in three ways. 

Initiative: Jesus extends the call to Matthew just as he does it to any other apostle. For Jesus, Matthew’s troublesome past as a tax collector who collaborated with the Roman regime and the fact that such tax collectors were often corrupt and greedy, was not a problem. Jesus’ gesture shows that Jesus was willing to be criticized for Matthew’s inclusion and that is what we find in the later part of the Gospel. In Matthew’s case, we experience the radicality of Jesus’ love as boundary-crossing. 

Imperative: Jesus’ invitation to Matthew comes as a command. When Jesus said, ‘Follow Me,’ Matthew had no option but to follow him. Here, we find Matthew obeying the force of love that comes from Jesus. We do not know if the call of Matthew was just instantaneous or had its root in him that Jesus had only to tap on it to pull Matthew over to his side. But what we know for sure is that Matthew obeys Jesus even before he could become his apostle. Jesus used his magic force of love to draw Matthew to him. 

Inclusion: Jesus’ call of Matthew highlights the inclusion that Jesus wanted the apostolic mission to be characterized by. Hence, for Jesus, inclusion was not a choice that his disciples could decide in favor of or against it. Instead, it was given as a mission mandate. Matthew’s call prefigured the Church’s mission to the marginalized way ahead of time. Also, Jesus’ practice of radical inclusion suggests that we have to imitate God in mercy instead of passing judgements on others with our limited knowledge. Jesus shows that in mercy, we resemble God. 

Let us pray that Jesus’ invitation to mercy as a hallmark of Christian lives be fulfilled in us. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar