Sunday 16 November 2014 is the Feast of the Holy Apostle & Evangelist Matthew Orthros Gospel: Matthew 28:16-20. Epistle: Romans 10:11-21; 11:1-2. Gospel: Matthew 9:9-13 Kontakion of the Feast: When thou didst cast away the publicans balance and wast united to the yoke of uprightness, then didst thou prove a merchant of great excellence, one that gathered in the wealth of the wisdom of Heaven; for this cause, the word of truth thou didst herald, O Matthew, and didst arouse the souls of sluggish men by signifying the dread day of reckoning. In Sunday’s Gospel on the feast of Saint Matthew, we hear the account of the calling of this great Apostle. Matthew had not been called at the same time as the other Apostles and Saint John Chrysostom tells us that this was because Jesus Christ calls us all at the time that is right for us. Saint Matthew was a tax collector and therefore a hated public sinner, for the tax collectors collaborated with the Roman oppressors and enriched themselves illegally in the process. He was hardly the obvious candidate for an Apostle. Yet Jesus Christ knew how to speak to his heart. All He had to say was “Follow Me!” and Matthew responded. Matthew had clearly seen something in who Jesus was that he found immensely appealing, for he was to become his faithful follower, recording His works, and preaching the Gospel throughout the world after His Ascension. We are given a clue into this identity of Jesus Christ in the incident that followed, in which He is shown eating with the tax collectors ̶ to the horror of the Pharisees. When challenged about how He could eat with such public sinners, Jesus responded by saying: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick … I desire mercy not sacrifice.” Jesus was prepared to meet people where they were at, for it was, precisely in order to save sinners that He had come into the world. The Church is often referred to as a hospital for sinners and sin is in many respects like a sickness. But a hospital is no good without a doctor and Christ refers to Himself here as the Divine Physician. And He shows us in this incident that He is prepared to come to us and meet us where we are at. There is no sin, and no aspect of our human brokenness, that is too much for Him. Rather than being repelled by it, as the Pharisees thought He should have been, He comes to us, shares our lives, and draws us to Himself, each in our own way and at the right time. “Sometimes people are tested by pleasure, sometimes by distress or by physical suffering. By means of His prescriptions the Physician of souls administers the remedy according to the cause of the passions lying hidden in the soul.” - Saint Maximus the Confessor -from Evangelion, A Bulletin of Orthodox Christian Faith
Posted on: Sat, 15 Nov 2014 22:04:00 +0000
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