The Tax Collector, Matthew

"He heard this and said, “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. Go and learn the meaning of the words, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.” (Mt 9:12-13) 

When the leaders of the Jewish community challenged Jesus about eating with tax collectors, his answer was clear and straightforward. While acknowledging that tax collectors were sick, he reminded his listeners that sick people need help. Implied, of course, is that if we deny our own sinfulness we are like the fellow who sees the splinter in everyone else's eye but ignores the beam in his own. If the Pharisees did not want to admit their own faults, they would have no need of God's help. Our first spiritual task is always to acknowledge our own faults, ask for God's mercy and accept it with joy when it comes. 

In biblical times, tax collectors were hated. Not only were most of them Jews who worked for the Roman occupiers, they often charged more than necessary if they thought they could get away with it. More often than not, therefore, they would prey on the poor and the illiterate who were unable to calculate their own taxes. Men who took advantage of the poor were despised by Jesus, but if they showed a willingness to let go of their evil ways, Jesus, the merciful physician, would heal them.

St Matthew, whose feast we celebrate today, was a tax collector, but Jesus saw something in him, even as he sat at his tax collector's table, that made Jesus choose him as an apostle. St Bede the Venerable, a doctor of the church who wrote in the 8th century, suggests that Jesus saw something in Matthew that others missed because he looked at him with merciful eyes. The same can be true for us as long as we don't hide. Because our pride often gets in the way of admitting our wrongs, we choose not to be transparent and humble before God and so cheat ourselves of God's mercy. 

Today, imagine yourself sitting quietly at your own "tax collectors table," and pray for the grace not to be so concerned with your own security that you miss the Lord's invitation to let go and follow him.