11th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Exodus 19:1-6 Romans 5:6-11 Matthew 9:36 – 10:8
Today’s Gospel reading is the lead-in to the second of the great sermons of Jesus on the Mountain (the 1st was the Beatitudes). Jesus is presenting here a programme for living as His disciples. It is a programme that presents challenges, warnings, assurances and rewards for those who follow the Lord. Disciples are “those who hear the Word of God and do it” (Luke 11:28). But now that Jesus begins the work of building up the Kingdom of God he wishes for some of his disciples to develop, to grow from ‘disciple’ to ‘apostle’. These Apostles would be teachers, leaders and builders of the Kingdom of God.
The first thing we learn about disciples and apostles is that they are called – and that they respond to the call of the Lord. We notice too, that the Apostles are from many different backgrounds, they are ordinary folk with diverse talents. As we read through the Gospels, we find them playing different parts in the establishment of the early Church and that some of them are almost anonymous. We know that all of them, except one, suffered martyrdom so that the seeds of God’s Kingdom would be sown. Saint John, the only one of the apostles to live out his natural life became a model for disciples who live to ‘old age’. Yes, the Apostles may have many things in common but they are each unique in the world and in the eyes of God. This year is the Year of Matthew. We read from Matthew’s Gospel in the Sunday Masses in Ordinary time. Matthew was first one to write of the events, ministry and teachings of Jesus. And having preached of the Lord to his own Jewish people, he decided to reach out to other peoples. He then put to writing in Hebrew for those whom he was leaving so that they would have the Gospel for ever.
Matthew responded generously to the call of the Lord. He, a tax- collector and perceived enemy of people was sitting at the tax office ‘as Jesus passed by from there….’ Jesus said to him ‘Follow me’ and …. He rose and followed him’!! It was instant and wholesome. Matthew left home and possessions and career and followed the Lord to spread the Good News of compassion and mercy. Compassion and mercy figure prominently in Matthew’s gospel. After all, Matthew was one of those referred to in the frequently used label ‘tax collectors and sinners’. He was invited into the group of friends gathered about the Lord, he was one of those with whom Jesus risked sharing table. In the parable told by Saint Luke of the Pharisee and the tax-collector we can place Matthew in the Temple; the Pharisee extols his own virtue while the tax-collector prays ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner’ (Luke 18:13). And Jesus comments: “I tell you this man went down to his house justified rather than the other” So, in the figure of Matthew, the Apostle, the gospels present to us a true and proper paradox: those who seem to be the farthest from holiness can even become a model of the acceptance of God’s mercy and of its effects in our own lives. Matthew is the assurance that everyone is important in eyes of God and that even our weaknesses can proclaim God’s mercy and compassion.