Deacon Brigid Waszczak

Jesus… saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.

While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples… the Pharisees…asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means… For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
—Matthew 9:9-13

Dear Sisters and Brothers, 

Who did Jesus call to his ministry?  —the broken or socially rejected; the unlikely and despised (Zacchaeus, the unpopular, wealthy chief tax collector); the unworthy or unqualified (Peter and the other disciples, fishermen with no training in Scripture). 

In today’s scripture, he called social outcast Matthew, considered a traitor working for Rome, an extortioner permitted to keep whatever he over-collected in taxes. As a very visible Roman collaborator, he was disqualified as a judge or witness in court, excommunicated from the synagogue, and a disgrace to his family. He’d already paid dearly for his career choice.

The Pharisees chafed at Jesus eating with Matthew. They were like doctors who wanted to avoid sick people! While they wanted the sick to heal, they wouldn’t risk infecting themselves by associating with them. 

In fact, these Rabbinic reprobates prayed: “God, I thank you that I am not like other people—cheaters, sinners, adulterers. I’m certainly not like the tax collector!” (Quote, Babylonian Talmud.) 

Remarkably, Jesus called Matthew who followed. He sacrificed more than other disciples who could easily return to fishing if things didn’t work out, for he would never be able to go back to tax collecting. Matthew gave up his lucrative livelihood!

We may fit into one or more of the categories listed above (broken, socially rejected, unpopular, unqualified, disgraced). Nevertheless, Jesus calls us today just as he sought out Matthew in his day. 

And, like Matthew we may need to give up a job, comforts, ambitions, or relationships.

I experienced those being harshly wrenched from my hands when I sought ordination. I also experienced similar Pharisaic resistance. As a woman, I was not “chosen” (in the Catholic Church) but yet heard God’s call. When being deemed unqualified and unworthy, I remembered those who responded to Jesus’ invitation despite those impediments. 

To what is Jesus calling you? What might you need to give up?  

Let it be so.

—Deacon Brigid