Monday, September 21, 2026

Saint Matthew, apostle and evangelist - Feast

Matthew 9:9-13

Listen to the whole reading — MP3

First reading

Ephesians 4:1-7,11-13

I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to walk worthily of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and humility, with patience, bearing with one another in love; being eager to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as you also were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in us all. But to each one of us was the grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ. He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, shepherds and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, to the work of serving, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a full grown man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;

Responsorial psalm

Psalms 19:1-2,3-4

The heavens declare the glory of God. The expanse shows his handiwork. Day after day they pour out speech, and night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their voice has gone out through all the earth, their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun,

Gospel

Matthew 9:9-13

As Jesus passed by from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax collection office. He said to him, “Follow me.” He got up and followed him. As he sat in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Jesus and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw it, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” When Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick do. But you go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Lectio

Notice how Paul insists that "to each one of us was the grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ." He speaks of apostles and prophets and teachers, of the whole body being built up — and today we celebrate a man who, only moments before his calling, had nothing on his résumé but a tax booth and the resentment of his neighbors. Jesus did not find Matthew among the qualified. He found him at the very desk where Matthew made his living off the misery of others, and He said simply, "Follow me." The gift was given not because Matthew had earned it, but because Christ chose to give it.

There is a wonderful stubbornness in the Lord here. The Pharisees are scandalized that He would sit at table with such people, and He answers with a line He tells them to go and learn: "I desire mercy, and not sacrifice." The heavens may declare the glory of God across the whole expanse of creation, but the glory that undoes the Pharisees is smaller and closer — it is God reclining in a house full of sinners, eating their food, calling them friends. This is the calling Paul begs us to walk worthy of: not a career of holiness we assemble on our own, but a mercy we first receive and then, somehow, learn to extend.

Matthew got up. That is the whole hinge of the story — he got up and left the table where his old life was counted out in coins. Most of us are still sitting at some version of that desk, half-expecting Jesus to walk past us because of what we do there.

What is the "tax booth" in your life right now — the place you assume disqualifies you from being called — and could you name it honestly today?

Who is the one person you find it hardest to sit down and eat with, and what would it cost you this week to offer them mercy instead of the judgment you feel is deserved?

Saint of the day

St. Matthew, Apostle - Feast

Ora reads this aloud, every morning, free. Ora