Homily of Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski at the Mass with MaterCare International on the Feast of St. Matthew the Apostle.

Istituto Maria Bambina, Rome – 21 settembre 2013

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Matthew the Apostle, whose call is briefly and dramatically portrayed for us in today’s Gospel.  The scripture readings  highlight at least three points:  God’s power to heal; His infinite mercy;  and the Call to live in a manner worthy of the vocation we have received.

1. God’s Power to Heal

When we think about Matthew, just like with the other Apostles, what comes to our mind is an image of a holy Apostle, the author of the first Gospel. However, this does not seem to be the image his contemporaries had about him, at least before his encounter with Jesus. It was a shock to many to see Jesus in the company of Matthew, later on be invited to his house to eat with other public sinners.

Our Lord in explaining to his listeners makes an important statement “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do.” What does he want us to learn? What reason does he have for inviting Matthew into the circle of Apostles and eating with tax collectors and those who disregard the law?

Matthew was a tax collector. To a Jew, this was one of the most despicable jobs possible. Tax collectors usually perpetrated violence and injustice against the poor. Worse than that, however, they sold out to the enemy, the Romans. Moreover, their association with the Romans made them unclean. Thus, tax collectors gave up their participation in the Jewish community and its worship.

Because of all this, a good Jew would not greet or associate with a tax collector. To eat with a tax collector and call him to become a disciple would be almost blasphemous to a good Jew. Therefore, Jesus’ calling of Matthew to become a disciple was either an astounding revelation of God’s grace or nothing less than an abomination before God.

Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do

With this statement  Jesus implied that He was a Doctor and Matthew was sin-sick. He had sinned by putting money ahead of God and people. He had collaborated with the Romans in oppressing the Israelites through the corrupt exacting of taxes. Matthew was sick of sin, sick of work, and sick of life. He needed a physician and Jesus had the necessary medicine: mercy. Jesus the divine physician made a “house call” at Matthew’s office, calling him out of sin-sickness into a healed and abundant life.

Jesus healed Matthew by eating with him (Mt 9:10), dying for him (Jn 15:13), and pouring out the Spirit on him. He made Matthew whole so he could become an apostle, a missionary, and a Gospel writer. Matthew was so transformed by his life in the Spirit that he laid down his life for Jesus. He was so healed he could be wounded out of love for his Healer and Lord.

Matthew’s calling and conversion is a radical statement that God can convert the hardest heart; Mercy triumphs over judgment, Grace surpasses sin, God chooses the despised.  The  Lord wants to heal you and I from our sickness and for ministry, sacrifice, and persecution, even to the death. Like Matthew let us open up our house and our heart to his mercy he will heal us from our infirmities.

When Matthew collected taxes, he also collected injustices and enemies. Matthew quit collecting taxes and followed Jesus. Then he collected the sayings and teachings of Jesus, the preaching of the early Church, and the accounts of Jesus’ miracles and healings. He put all this together to compose his Gospel.

You may be a collector yourself. You may collect stamps, antiques, or even art. But what do you collect spiritually? Some people collect compulsions. They pick up one after another. Others collect fears. They “live in fear”. Some collect unforgiveness, resentment, and grudges. Others collect hurts. They have so many more hurts than healings.

As Matthew did, let’s leave the spiritual garbage we’ve collected over the years and follow Jesus. Then we can start a new collection — a collection of healings, forgivenesses, freedoms, and commitments to the Lord, as well as love for the mothers and children we are called to take care of as obstetricians.

Human beings have the tendency to collect something. Whatever we collect, may it give glory to God.

The second point also comes from the Gospel and is directly connected to the first, and that is God’s infinite mercy. Our Lord says:

2. “Go and learn from these words, I desire mercy and not sacrifice”

That is not an easy lesson to learn. Normally we would like to see our enemies or those who have hurt us pay up to the last coin. But God proposes mercy, forgiveness and love to those who sin. By calling Matthew, Jesus shows that he would rather have the enemies, the sinners be drawn into communion with the God of Israel and share the benefits of that relationship than treat them as eternal outcasts and plot their demise. Jesus makes it clear that he will not hesitate to call people like Matthew into his service, and he knows well that some may not like this and will reject him as a result.

The lesson for us might be a reminder that the purpose of the Church is to make saints out of sinners. This means that there are always going to be a lot of sinners in the Church, and we have to adjust our expectations as a result. If the Church can include sinners, it can also include people like ourselves.  Go and learn from these words, I desire mercy and not sacrifice.

And so Pope Francis reminds us that “ The mercy of God is the true force that can save man and the world from the “Cancer”, which is sin, moral evil and spiritual evil. Only love feels the voids, the negative rift that evil opens in the heart of man and in history. Only love can do this and that is the joy of God!” (Angelus, 15 September 2013)

Thus we make the words of the psalmist our prayer: “If you, O Lord, should mark our guilt, Lord, who would survive? But with you is found forgiveness:  for this we revere you” Ps 130 (129), 3-4.

3. “I.. urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received.”

Last but not least, the first reading today urges us to live in a manner worthy of the call we have received. You are gathered here as Catholic Obstetricians and as Catholic physicians yours is not just a profession, in the words of Pope Francis “it is a unique vocation and mission.” Now a vocation is a call to a way of life and as such cannot be defined only by the activities that constitute a career. Catholic physicians have a vocation to the Christian Life. The later entails the transformation of their activity to the level of a grace, a way of giving witness to the gospel message.

The Charter for Health Care Workers rightly calls your profession a treasured “service to life.”  As Pope Francis emphasized in his address, you have been called to be servants  and custodians of human life. This entails the prevention, cure and rehabilitation of human health. By so doing  you are responding to a God given duty (CCC, 2288) – since life and health are precious gifts from God and we human beings are but custodians. Moreover, it is a form of Christian witness: the word obstetrics comes from Latin obstare, which means “to stand by”,  you stand by the mothers as they labour to bring new life to light. You stand by the unborn and the new born to safeguard and promote their life and health. These are delicate and very important stages in the life of the mothers and their children. You thus have a fundamental role to play in the protection and promotion of human life. All this for Christian physicians is a dedication to the love for one’s neighbour. It involves interpersonal human relationship, and therefore you are called to be the Good Samaritan (Lk 10: 29-37), neighbour in charity.

The question is, are we well prepared to live up to this calling? There are many challenges out there against human life, being promoted by the culture of death. We have to stand up for the dignity of human life and defend it  from conception to its natural end.

Paul insists that we are to live in a manner worthy of our call. We are to do so with humility, gentleness, and patience. We are to bear with one another through love and strive to preserve Christian unity. We are all called to ministry and we are given the grace needed do it. The new evangelization of society, of our places of work, the re-conversion of the contemporary culture is our duty.

Saint Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist, whose feast we celebrate today, took the teaching of Saint Paul to heart. He proclaimed the Good News of Jesus. In the words of the psalm response, his message went out through all the earth. In doing this, he helped equip his hearers to take the story of Jesus to their world. Each person has gifts. Each person receives the grace necessary to use those gifts. May the Lord give us the grace and courage to use our gifts as the Apostle Matthew used his.

I commend your pro-life activities to the protection of the Blessed Virgin, who   traveled to the hill country in haste to arrive and assist her cousin Elizabeth, who though advanced in years was pregnant. Mary, Mother of life, pray for us.   Amen