Gospel Delights!

Thursday, September 21, 2023

Feast of St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist

Eph 4:1-7,11-13; Mt 9:9-13

Eight young Italian boys wrote a book in 1967 entitled Letter to a Teacher: By the School of Barbiana. It was an eloquent indictment of the Italian educational system of the time that favored the children of the middle and professional classes and neglected the children of the peasants and poor. The learning was designed to take place within a discriminatory framework where the boys from privileged backgrounds were regarded for being ‘smart,’ while the disadvantaged kids were frowned upon for being ‘slow’ learners. While building their argument against a biased pedagogy, they compare the unfair learning environment to a ‘hospital which tends to the healthy and rejects the sick.’

Today’s gospel helps us realize that, just like the eight Italian boys who sensed discrimination in their educational system, Jesus too perceives a deeply ingrained bias against the downtrodden. It is against this backdrop that Jesus declares that he has come to be a physician for the sick and not for those who are well. 

Jesus also demonstrates that inclusion is a Divine Agenda by calling Matthew, the tax collector. We must remember that Matthew is named an apostle by Jesus and not merely his follower. The inclusive agenda of Jesus is a testament to God’s preferential option that will mean a radical reversal of order by making the marginalized the mainstay of the Kingdom. 

Though Jesus’ call of Matthew looks so sudden and dramatic in description, we understand that it must have gone through a process. Jesus knew Matthew’s deplorable condition as a Roman collaborator and Matthew knew Jesus to be the merciful healer. When such mutuality was ripe, Jesus utters the remarkable words ‘Follow Me,’ and Matthew, bound by the power of ‘irresistible grace’ answers promptly by getting up, leaving everything, and following him (Lk 5:27-32). 

The Kingdom praxis is profoundly liberating. We contradict the Divine Agenda if we fail to assert God’s preferential option in our life and mission as Christians.

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar