Memorial of Saint Matthew, apostle and evangelist. Read more
Memorial of Saint Matthew, apostle and evangelist.
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
If we die with him, we shall live with him,
if with him we endure, with him we shall reign.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Matthew 9,9-13
As Jesus was walking on from there he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, 'Follow me.' And he got up and followed him. Now while he was at table in the house it happened that a number of tax collectors and sinners came to sit at the table with Jesus and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, 'Why does your master eat with tax collectors and sinners?' When he heard this he replied, 'It is not the healthy who need the doctor, but the sick. Go and learn the meaning of the words: Mercy is what pleases me, not sacrifice. And indeed I came to call not the upright, but sinners.'
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
If we die with him, we shall live with him,
if with him we endure, with him we shall reign.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
In this day in which the Church remembers Matthew, apostle and evangelist we read again the story of his vocation. His call becomes an opportunity to open our eyes to the Lord's mercy. An ancient Christian commentator wrote: "He saw a publican and, looking at him with mercy, he chose him (miserando atque eligendo) and said to him, 'Follow me.' He said to him, 'Follow me,' that is, imitate me. Follow me, he said, not so much with the movement of the feet as with the practice of life." It is no coincidence that Pope Francis chose as the motto of his pontificate precisely this expression: 'Miserando atque eligendo'. At the beginning of Jesus' call there is always his mercy. And by virtue of this choice, even a publican like Matthew can become a disciple and guide to others. "Learn what it means: Mercy I want and not sacrifice," says Jesus. The world seems to have forgotten what this word means: mercy is the heart that becomes close to what is small, and it translates the Hebrew term hesed, which indicates covenant and solidarity. And to feel mercy is then not an act of pity but of justice. Matthew seems to have learnt immediately what this means, in fact he opens the doors of his house, invites Jesus and those with him into his home and offers them a banquet. There are also his friends and others whom the Gospel calls 'sinners': they were people despised by all. Matthew understands that one is not saved alone. He understands that converting one's life does not mean making a formal 'sacrifice,' but making concrete gestures that change the lives and hearts of others. Jesus is not scandalised by people's sin, by their weakness, but he distances himself from the judgement of the Pharisees, who put up walls, create distances, draw borders that divide people, into pure and impure, good and bad, healthy and sick. "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick." Then Jesus explains his mission: he came to help and heal, to free and save. He did not come down from heaven to judge, but to teach men and women to act like him.
Prayer is the heart of the life of the Community of Sant'Egidio and is its absolute priority. At the end of the day, every the Community of Sant'Egidio, large or small, gathers around the Lord to listen to his Word. The Word of God and the prayer are, in fact, the very basis of the whole life of the Community. The disciples cannot do other than remain at the feet of Jesus, as did Mary of Bethany, to receive his love and learn his ways (Phil. 2:5).
So every evening, when the Community returns to the feet of the Lord, it repeats the words of the anonymous disciple: " Lord, teach us how to pray". Jesus, Master of prayer, continues to answer: "When you pray, say: Abba, Father". It is not a simple exhortation, it is much more. With these words Jesus lets the disciples participate in his own relationship with the Father. Therefore in prayer, the fact of being children of the Father who is in heaven, comes before the words we may say. So praying is above all a way of being! That is to say we are children who turn with faith to the Father, certain that they will be heard.
Jesus teaches us to call God "Our Father". And not simply "Father" or "My Father". Disciples, even when they pray on their own, are never isolated nor they are orphans; they are always members of the Lord's family.
In praying together, beside the mystery of being children of God, there is also the mystery of brotherhood, as the Father of the Church said: "You cannot have God as father without having the church as mother". When praying together, the Holy Spirit assembles the disciples in the upper room together with Mary, the Lord's mother, so that they may direct their gaze towards the Lord's face and learn from Him the secret of his Heart.
The Communities of Sant'Egidio all over the world gather in the various places of prayer and lay before the Lord the hopes and the sufferings of the tired, exhausted crowds of which the Gospel speaks ( Mat. 9: 3-7 ), In these ancient crowds we can see the huge masses of the modern cities, the millions of refugees who continue to flee their countries, the poor, relegated to the very fringe of life and all those who are waiting for someone to take care of them. Praying together includes the cry, the invocation, the aspiration, the desire for peace, the healing and salvation of the men and women of this world. Prayer is never in vain; it rises ceaselessly to the Lord so that anguish is turned into hope, tears into joy, despair into happiness, and solitude into communion. May the Kingdom of God come soon among people!
For the sick, in memory of the dead, for peace
