Saint Matthew, Apostle, Evangelist

1 When he saw the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 He began to teach them, saying: 3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted. 5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land. 6 Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied. 7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. 8 Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. 10 Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven. Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you. 13 "You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. 14 You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house. 16 Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father. 17 "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. 18 Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place. 19 Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 20 I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. 21 "You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, 'You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment.' 22 But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, and whoever says to his brother, 'Raqa,' will be answerable to the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, 'You fool,' will be liable to fiery Gehenna. 23 Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, 24 leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift. 25 Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court with him. Otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge, and the judge will hand you over to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. 26 Amen, I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last penny. 27 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' 28 But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body thrown into Gehenna. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body go into Gehenna. 31 "It was also said, 'Whoever divorces his wife must give her a bill of divorce.' 32 But I say to you, whoever divorces his wife (unless the marriage is unlawful) causes her to commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. 33 "Again, you have heard that it was said to your ancestors, 'Do not take a false oath, but fulfill what you have sworn to the Lord.' 34 But I say to you, do not swear at all; not by heaven, for it is God's throne; 35 nor by earth, for it is his footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 Do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 Let your 'Yes' mean 'Yes,' and your 'No' mean 'No.' Anything more is from the evil one. 38 "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' 39 But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one to him as well. 40 If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand him your cloak as well. 41 Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go with him for two miles. 42 Give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow. 43 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44 But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same? 48 So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect. 1 "[But] take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them; otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father. 2 When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to win the praise of others. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. 3 But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right is doing, 4 so that your almsgiving may be secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you. 5 "When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. 6 But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you. 7 In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 "This is how you are to pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven. 11 Give us today our daily bread; 12 and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; 13 and do not subject us to the final test, but deliver us from the evil one. 14 If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions. 16 "When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites. They neglect their appearance, so that they may appear to others to be fasting. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. 17 But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18 so that you may not appear to be fasting, except to your Father who is hidden. And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you. 19 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be. 22 "The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light; 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be in darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great will the darkness be! 24 "No one can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. 25 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they? 27 Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span? 28 Why are you anxious about clothes? Learn from the way the wild flowers grow. They do not work or spin. 29 But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them. 30 If God so clothes the grass of the field, which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 So do not worry and say, 'What are we to eat?' or 'What are we to drink?' or 'What are we to wear?' 32 All these things the pagans seek. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom [of God] and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides. 34 Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil. 1 "Stop judging, that you may not be judged. 2 For as you judge, so will you be judged, and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you. 3 Why do you notice the splinter in your brother's eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove that splinter from your eye,' while the wooden beam is in your eye? 5 You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother's eye. 6 "Do not give what is holy to dogs, or throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them underfoot, and turn and tear you to pieces. 7 "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 9 Which one of you would hand his son a stone when he asks for a loaf of bread, 10 or a snake when he asks for a fish? 11 If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him! 12 "Do to others whatever you would have them do to you. This is the law and the prophets. 13 "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter through it are many. 14 How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few. 15 "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but underneath are ravenous wolves. 16 By their fruits you will know them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Just so, every good tree bears good fruit, and a rotten tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a rotten tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 So by their fruits you will know them. 21 "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out demons in your name? Did we not perform many mighty deeds in your name?' 23 Then I will declare to them solemnly, 'I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers!' 24 "Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. 25 The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock. 26 And everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who built his house on sand. 27 The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. And it collapsed and was completely ruined." 28 When Jesus finished these words, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, 29 for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Continuing the series of catecheses on the Apostles, today we shall reflect on Matthew. Actually, he is called Levi by Mark (2:14) and Luke (5:27), while Matthew is the name given to him in the Gospel that bears his name (9:9). He was a tax collector, that is, a public official who collected taxes on behalf of the Roman imperial authority, and for this reason was considered by the Jews to be a public sinner. Indeed, the Gospels of Mark and Luke tell of his call from the customs bench, and Matthew himself speaks of it in his Gospel: "As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post. He said to him, 'Follow me.' And he got up and followed him" (Mt 9:9).
In this way, Matthew proposes his own example of prompt obedience to Jesus' call without hesitation. For him, it meant abandoning everything, as can be deduced from the parallel passages of Mark (2:14) and Luke (5:28), which say that he got up and "left everything". This clearly shows that adherence to Jesus Christ is not something that can permit compromises of any sort. One cannot follow Jesus if one does not abandon all that constitutes a potential obstacle to a total following of him. The Lord's words are categorical: "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it" (Mt 10:37-39).
It was not easy for Matthew to make such a decision, because it certainly implied giving up a source of considerable income, guaranteed by his membership of the category of tax collectors. This was evident in the fact that Jesus, after calling him, entered his house and sat at table with him, together with many other tax collectors and sinners. A banquet, therefore, with a large attendance, that became a banquet of communion with Jesus. Mark and Luke also mention it (Mk 2:15; Lk 5:29-30).
The Evangelist Matthew specifies that it was "in the house". This detail leads one to suppose that Matthew offered a meal in his house for Jesus. The very fact that Jesus accepted to go to the house of Matthew, a tax collector, gave rise to criticism from the Pharisees. "When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, 'Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?'" (Mt 9:11).
Jesus knew perfectly well that this would cause criticism and indeed, he answered, indicating the reason for his presence: "Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I did not come to call the righteous but sinners" (Mt 9:12-13).
The Gospel of Matthew contains three very important references to this phrase of Hosea (6:6): in addition to the one just quoted, where Jesus explains his sitting at table with tax collectors and sinners, it is also found in 12:7, in reference to the disciples' transgression of the precept concerning the Sabbath, and then in 23:23, in the controversy against the hypocrisy of the Pharisees who scrupulously paid the tithe of mint, dill and cummin, while neglecting the weightier precepts of the law: justice and mercy and faith.
It is clear from these three passages that the divine mercy is seen as a crucial demand for anyone who follows Jesus. He does not oppose the Mosaic Law but stresses the original meaning, and demands fidelity to the essential, that is, to the love that God himself had for us, which is present in the heart of every human being.
Matthew's account of the banquet in his house concludes with the very important statement made by Jesus: "I did not come to call the righteous but sinners" (Mt 9:13). The good news of the Gospel is precisely that God offers salvation to sinners, and not only to the righteous.
Therefore, the invitation to conversion must be understood not as a presupposition for salvation, because the Gospel offers it precisely to those who cannot convert by themselves, because they are impeded by sin. It is rather an invitation to recognize that one is a sinner, in order to accept God's forgiveness, which, by transforming the individual, enables him to begin a new life obedient to God's will.
This is clearly explained in the so-called parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, where only the latter, the tax collector, returns home justified, because he humbles himself and acknowledges his sins (Lk 18:9-14).
Thus, in the figure of Matthew, the Gospels present to us a true and proper paradox: those who are apparently distant from holiness can even become a model of the acceptance of God's mercy and enable one to glimpse its marvellous effects.
Lastly, we should remember that the Church's tradition has always identified Matthew, the tax collector, with Matthew the Evangelist. This has already been mentioned in passing. Luke speaks of Levi, then in the list of the Apostles he mentions Matthew, but does not specify that Levi is Matthew. Mark speaks of Levi, and then in the list of the Apostles he mentions Matthew, but does not make the connection. It is the Gospel of Matthew himself that identifies him: "As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post. He said to him, 'Follow me.' And he got up and followed him" (Mt 9:9). And then, in the list of the Apostles, he says: "And the names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him" (Mt 10:2-4). The Greek text describes him as "ho telones", the tax collector, which is also rendered as "the publican". This is an appellative that Matthew himself attributes to himself, which shows us that he did not hide his past, but stressed it as a testimony to God's grace, which converted him. Only a conversion of this kind could give him the freedom to express this self-description.
It is the most ancient tradition of the Church that identifies Matthew the tax collector with Matthew the Apostle, and this is confirmed by the internal evidence of the Gospel itself. Indeed, the Gospel of Matthew has a strong Jewish character, which is particularly evident in the attention it pays to the dual theme of the Kingdom of Heaven and the fulfilment of the messianic prophecies.
This is a truly precious gift for the Church, because it presents Jesus' saving message as the fulfilment of the history of salvation revealed in the Old Testament. Thus, the Old and New Testaments are found to be solidly united in Christ.
I conclude with a final thought on the Gospel of Matthew. In the two-part sequence of the Beatitudes and the discourse on the Last Judgment, it outlines the basic demands of Christian ethical life.
In the Beatitudes (chap. 5) Matthew proclaims to us the new justice, the new programme of life, what the Lord offers to us. And in the discourse on the Last Judgment (chap. 25) he presents the criterion of this new justice: what we have done or not done to Jesus, who is present in our brethren.
Thus, Matthew's Gospel becomes a constant and pertinent exhortation to make decisions and to live justly, building the Kingdom of God with the new justice that is profoundly founded on mercy. And this is all in the light of the certainty that, by responding to the Beatitudes, we are exercising mercy, and thus we enable God's mercy to be present in our world.