Jesus saw him through the eyes of mercy and chose him

Treasures of Our Faith with Deacon Richard Vehige

Today, September 21, as our church celebrates the Feast of Matthew, Apostle, our Church invites us to reflect on a passage from Saint Paul’s letter to the Ephesians (4: 1-16), entitled “The different graces in the one body”. Our treasure, which follows, is from a homily by Saint Bede the Venerable, priest.

Born in Capernaum, Saint Matthew was working as a tax collector when he was called by Jesus. He wrote his gospel in Hebrew and is said to have preached in the East. The Gospel accounts of Mark and Luke, like Matthew's own, describe the encounter between Jesus and Matthew under the surprising circumstances of Matthew's tax-collecting duties. Jewish publicans, who collected taxes on behalf of the Roman rulers of first-century Judea, were objects of scorn and even hatred among their own communities, since they worked on behalf of the occupying power and often earned their living by collecting more than the state's due. Although relatively little is known about the life of St. Matthew, the account he wrote of Christ's ministry – traditionally considered to be the first of the four Gospels - is of inestimable value to the Church, particularly in its verification of Jesus as the Messiah.

Saint Bede was an early eighth century English monk and an author and scholar. Saint Bede, trained by Saint Benedict, is one of the few saints honored as such during his lifetime. His writings were filled with such faith and learning that, even while he was still alive, a church Council ordered them to be read publicly in the churches. He is best known for his work, the “Ecclesial History of the English People”, a source vital to the history of the conversion to Christianity of the Anglo-Saxon tribes.

The Epistle to the Ephesians is the tenth book of the New Testament and was written by Paul the Apostle. Ephesians hits on a wide range of moral and ethical behaviors, designed to ensure that believers are living up to our heavenly calling. As we continue in our faith from day to day, month to month, and year to year, the temptation to get comfortable will always exist.The main message of Ephesians is that believers are not only reconciled to God but to each other. They are to maintain unity of purpose within their families and church, while resisting the temptation to fall into the sin of the world surrounding them.