for September 21
Feast of Saint Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist

Is the man sitting at his customs post in today’s gospel the author of the gospel of  Matthew?

On the one hand is a tax collector, here named Matthew but called Levi in a similar incident in Mark’s gospel. At Jesus’s command, Matthew leaves work and follows Jesus. The next thing you know, Matthew and Jesus are eating with a table full of tax collectors and sinners, to the consternation of the Pharisees. By the beginning of the next chapter, Matthew the tax collector has become Matthew the disciple, named among the twelve summoned and sent out by Jesus.

On the other hand, Matthew the evangelist composed his gospel decades later. His knowledge of scripture and the frequency with which he pronounced it fulfilled in Jesus, as well as his knowledge of infighting among rival factions of religious leadership, suggest that the evangelist is well-educated and more at home in the Jewish tradition than a tax collector would be. In fact, some scripture scholars think that the best clue to the identity of the author of Matthew’s gospel is in Matthew 13:52, when Jesus says that  “every scribe who  has been instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old.” 

So it’s not likely Matthew the tax collector and Matthew the evangelist are one and the same person.

But if we know that, then why read the passage about the tax collector on the feast of the evangelist? Perhaps some in the church still want to hold the two close together, to strengthen the tie between being an apostle who witnessed Jesus’s mighty works and teaching and death and resurrection with the composition of this gospel. 

But Matthew the tax collector can also stand as a powerful witness to a gospel truth that is all too easy to forget: Jesus enjoys the company of the despised. In fact, Jesus seeks it out and prefers it to the company of the righteous who feel they have no need of him. Not only that, but Jesus will trust such ‘tax-collectors and sinners’ to carry on his work of teaching and healing.

There is a great deal of righteousness in our nation just now, and a corresponding lack of mercy. As the righteous try to judge who is a true American, who is a true Catholic, who truly believes the gospel and keeps the commandments, remember the story of Matthew the tax collector. He enjoyed God’s mercy and forgiveness—and like the scholar whose name he shared, he went on to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ.  On the feast of St. Matthew, that’s not a bad example to follow.—BJ Brown

Today’s readings can be found on the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ website.