St. Matthew and the Gospel of Reconciliation

From time to time, I let my mind consider what it must have been like to be part of the intimate group which we have named the Twelve Apostles. Lest we get the notion that these twelve men enjoyed a singular and harmonious type of existence together, it is important for us to hear the stories surrounding their call.

All of the Twelve were Jewish.  However, their connection to their faith was by no means uniform.  That is very clearly illustrated by the choice of Matthew, a toll collector and Roman collaborator.  When placed next to the hard-working fishermen of Galilee and the zealot Simon, his choice seems to have been less than prudent.

Yet the Gospel only records one instance of a dispute among the apostles; namely, when the mother of the sons of Zebedee asks that her sons sit at the right and left hand of Jesus when he comes into his kingdom.  Other than that, we have no record of their being a sense of discord among the apostle even though they obviously came from different backgrounds and different lifestyles with regard to observance of the Jewish faith. 

The Gospel of Mark names the tax or toll collector as a man named Levi. It is Matthew himself who changes the story in his own account and names himself as the Roman collaborator. As I mentioned on Sunday, St. Matthew’s Gospel has as its focus and its central theme the reconciliation that Jesus brought about between God and the human family. The parables of mercy and compassion that we find in St. Luke’s Gospel take nothing away from the fact that St. Matthew also realizes that Jesus is reconciliation with God personified.

Each time we pray the Eucharistic Prayer we hear these or similar words: “Look, we pray, upon the oblation of your Church, and, recognizing the sacrificial Victim by whose death you willed to reconcile us to yourself, grant that we, who are nourished by the Body and Blood of your Son and filled with his Holy Spirit, may become one body, one spirit in Christ.”  Through our daily celebration we continue to effect this gift of reconciliation.

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator