An Invitation To Read My Story - My Testimony

September 21

 

Feast of Saint Matthew
Apostle and Evangelist
Today's Gospel: Matthew 9:9-13

I took the picture, and I had Google AI make it sharper.

Today’s Gospel: Matthew 9:9-13
(Jesus Calls Matthew)

“As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax office; and he said to him, "Follow me." And he rose and followed him. And as he sat at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"  But when he heard it, he said, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, `I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.' For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Reflection:

Today the Church celebrates the feast of Saint Matthew, a tax collector, one of the most despised professions in first-century Judea, a man who made his living collaborating with Rome to extract money from his own people, someone the religious establishment would have crossed the street to avoid. Jesus walks past his tax booth and says two words: Follow me. And Matthew, without negotiation, without a single recorded question, gets up and follows. No other detail is given, because none is needed; the call itself is the whole story. Paul's letter to the Ephesians today describes exactly what happens next in a life like Matthew's: there is one body and one Spirit, and grace was given to each of us according to the measure of Christ's gift, some as apostles, some as evangelists, to build up the body of Christ. The tax collector nobody wanted at their table became one of the four men entrusted with writing down the very life of Christ for every generation to come. That's not a small task. That's the kind of reversal only grace can account for.

The Gospel today gives us the moment right after the call, and it's just as telling as the call itself. Jesus goes to eat at Matthew's house, surrounded by tax collectors and sinners, and the Pharisees ask His disciples why their teacher eats with such people. Jesus overhears and answers plainly: those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. Go and learn what this means: I desire mercy, not sacrifice. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners. Matthew wasn't cleaned up before he was called. He was called, and the table he'd already been sitting at, full of people the respectable world had written off, became the very place Jesus chose to reveal what mercy actually looks like in practice.

That should press on wherever you've assumed you're too compromised, too far outside respectable company, to be the one Jesus calls. Matthew was collecting money at a booth built on collaboration with the occupying empire. Jesus didn't wait for him to change professions first. He simply said Follow me, and let the change happen from the inside, at Matthew's own table, surrounded by the very people everyone else avoided. Who is sitting at your table right now that others have written off? Mercy, not sacrifice, is still the standard Jesus asks His followers to keep.

As a side note, as you continue to see and read what I write along with the photography, please note that this is a new content trend that I personally created. I will be taking pictures on the Fatima Shrine grounds of different Saints, and I will have AI assist me in sharpening the photography. I hope you will enjoy this New experience of seeing the shrine as we reflect upon the different Saints each month, for the most part in conjunction with their feast days.

A shrine in the kingdom of Valencia, Our Lady of Pucha, was discovered around 1228, when seven stars shone over a single spot in the earth, leading people to dig until they found her image buried there, waiting. Matthew's own worth was buried in exactly that way beneath a profession everyone despised, until Christ's own initiative, two words, spoken at a tax booth, uncovered what had been hidden there all along. Ephesians reminds us that Christ gives gifts to build up His whole body, and sometimes the gift He's building with is the very person the crowd had already decided to walk past. Matthew was buried treasure. So very often, are we, accept Jesus’s invitation and Follow Him.

Who is sitting at your own table that others have already written off, or is it you who feels too buried, too compromised, too far outside respectable company to be called? Matthew's whole worth was hidden under a job everyone despised until Jesus dug it up with two words. Let Him say those two words to you today.

Rosary Man Jim 🌹
Freely given. Freely shared.

Written by: James Dacey, Jr. OFS

Check this out… I put this Bible Index together for the entire Bible back in the early 1990s; I just never got around to copyrighting it, but that’s OK, it’s all for the Lord.

 

Here’s a full breakdown of The Gospel of Matthew

I. Prologue: Origins of the Messiah (1:1–2:23)

• Genealogy of Jesus (1:1–17)
• Birth of Jesus / Joseph's dream (1:18–25)
• Visit of the Magi (2:1–12)
• Flight into Egypt (2:13–15)
• Massacre of the Innocents (2:16–18)
• Return to Nazareth (2:19–23)

II. Narrative: Preparation for Ministry (3:1–4:25)

• John the Baptist's preaching (3:1–12)
• Baptism of Jesus (3:13–17)
• Temptation in the wilderness (4:1–11)
• Beginning of Galilean ministry / calling the first disciples (4:12–22)
• Summary of early ministry and healings (4:23–25)

III. First Discourse: The Sermon on the Mount (5:1–7:29)

• The Beatitudes (5:1–12)
• Salt and light (5:13–16)
• Fulfilling the Law (5:17–20)
• Antitheses — anger, lust, divorce, oaths, retaliation, enemies (5:21–48)
• On giving, prayer, and fasting (6:1–18)
• The Lord's Prayer (6:9–15)
• Treasures in heaven / on anxiety (6:19–34)
• On judging others (7:1–6)
• Ask, seek, knock (7:7–12)
• The narrow gate; false prophets; wise and foolish builders (7:13–29)

IV. Narrative: Ministry of Authority — Ten Miracles (8:1–9:38)

• Cleansing a leper (8:1–4)
• Healing the centurion's servant (8:5–13)
• Healing Peter's mother-in-law and others (8:14–17)
• Cost of discipleship (8:18–22)
• Calming the storm (8:23–27)
• Healing the Gadarene demoniacs (8:28–34)
• Healing a paralytic / forgiveness of sins (9:1–8)
• Calling Matthew; eating with sinners (9:9–13)
• Question about fasting (9:14–17)
• Raising Jairus's daughter; healing the woman with the hemorrhage (9:18–26)
• Healing two blind men and a mute man (9:27–34)
• Compassion for the crowds / the harvest is plentiful (9:35–38)

V. Second Discourse: The Mission Discourse (10:1–42)

• Commissioning and empowering the Twelve (10:1–15)
• Warnings of persecution (10:16–25)
• Fear God, not man (10:26–33)
• Not peace but a sword — cost of discipleship (10:34–39)
• Rewards for receiving Christ's messengers (10:40–42)

VI. Narrative: Growing Opposition (11:1–12:50)

• John the Baptist's question from prison (11:1–19)
• Woes on unrepentant cities (11:20–24)
• "Come to me, all who are weary" (11:25–30)
• Disputes over the Sabbath (12:1–14)
• Jesus as the chosen servant (12:15–21)
• Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit / Beelzebul controversy (12:22–37)
• Sign of Jonah (12:38–42)
• Return of the unclean spirit (12:43–45)
• Jesus's true family (12:46–50)

VII. Third Discourse: Parables of the Kingdom (13:1–52)

• Parable of the sower (13:1–23)
• Parable of the weeds (13:24–30, 36–43)
• Mustard seed and leaven (13:31–33)
• Hidden treasure and the pearl (13:44–46)
• Parable of the net (13:47–50)
• Treasures new and old (13:51–52)

VIII. Narrative: Identity and Preparation for the Cross (13:53–17:27)

• Rejection at Nazareth (13:53–58)
• Death of John the Baptist (14:1–12)
• Feeding the five thousand (14:13–21)
• Walking on water (14:22–33)
• Healings at Gennesaret (14:34–36)
• Tradition vs. commandment / what defiles a person (15:1–20)
• Faith of the Canaanite woman (15:21–28)
• Feeding the four thousand (15:32–39)
• Demand for a sign; leaven of the Pharisees (16:1–12)
• Peter's confession at Caesarea Philippi (16:13–20)
• First prediction of the Passion (16:21–28)
• The Transfiguration (17:1–13)
• Healing the boy with a demon (17:14–20)
• Second prediction of the Passion (17:22–23)
• Temple tax / coin in the fish's mouth (17:24–27)

IX. Fourth Discourse: The Community (Church) Discourse (18:1–35)

• Greatness in the kingdom / becoming like children (18:1–5)
• Warnings against causing others to sin (18:6–9)
• Parable of the lost sheep (18:10–14)
• Church discipline and binding/loosing (18:15–20)
• Parable of the unforgiving servant (18:21–35)

X. Narrative: Journey Toward Jerusalem (19:1–22:46)

• Teaching on divorce (19:1–12)
• Blessing the children (19:13–15)
• The rich young man (19:16–30)
• Parable of the workers in the vineyard (20:1–16)
• Third prediction of the Passion (20:17–19)
• Request of James and John's mother (20:20–28)
• Healing two blind men near Jericho (20:29–34)
• Triumphal entry into Jerusalem (21:1–11)
• Cleansing the Temple (21:12–17)
• Cursing the fig tree (21:18–22)
• Question about Jesus's authority (21:23–27)
• Parable of the two sons (21:28–32)
• Parable of the wicked tenants (21:33–46)
• Parable of the wedding banquet (22:1–14)
• Paying taxes to Caesar (22:15–22)
• Question about the resurrection (22:23–33)
• The greatest commandment (22:34–40)
• Whose son is the Messiah? (22:41–46)

XI. Fifth Discourse: Woes and the Olivet Discourse (23:1–25:46)

• Denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees / seven woes (23:1–39)
• Prediction of the Temple's destruction (24:1–2)
• Signs of the end of the age (24:3–35)
• The unknown day and hour (24:36–44)
• Parable of the faithful and wise servant (24:45–51)
• Parable of the ten virgins (25:1–13)
• Parable of the talents (25:14–30)
• The sheep and the goats / final judgment (25:31–46)

XII. The Passion Narrative (26:1–27:66)

• Plot against Jesus; anointing at Bethany (26:1–13)
• Judas's betrayal arranged (26:14–16)
• The Last Supper (26:17–30)
• Prediction of Peter's denial (26:31–35)
• Gethsemane (26:36–46)
• Arrest of Jesus (26:47–56)
• Trial before the Sanhedrin (26:57–68)
• Peter's denial (26:69–75)
• Jesus before Pilate (27:1–2, 11–26)
• Death of Judas (27:3–10)
• Mocking and crucifixion (27:27–44)
• Death of Jesus (27:45–56)
• Burial (27:57–61)
• Guard posted at the tomb (27:62–66)

XIII. The Resurrection (28:1–20)

• The empty tomb / angel's announcement (28:1–10)
• Report of the guards / cover story (28:11–15)
• The Great Commission (28:16–20)