Saint Matthew is one of the four evangelists, who lived the life of Jesus up close.
Invitation
May I hereby draw your attention to
the daily reading of the Gospel?
This invitation wants to share with You the joy
of the Gospel. Everyone, no one except,
can experience that joy by opening their hearts
to the healing power of God’s word.
Available every day
Consideration
Today the Church celebrates St. Matthew, the tax collector called by Jesus to follow him. Why did Jesus call a tax collector of all people? What qualities made him suitable as a disciple? Were not tax collectors and sinners mentioned in the same breath in the Gospel? But it is also written of this man: ‘He got up and followed Him’. With the Lord, what someone possesses, who someone is, not even how often he fell short in life, does not count. With Jesus, only the willingness with which someone responds to his invitation counts. For Matthew, his lucrative profession, his income, and his livelihood become unimportant. He has met the One from whom he can expect more than all that: The true meaning of life.
FIRST READING Eph. 4:1-7,11-13
Some He made apostles, others prophets.
From the letter of the holy apostle Paul to the Christians of
Ephesus
Brothers and sisters,
I, the prisoner in the Lord urge you :
Lead a life that responds
to the calling you have received from God,
in all humility and meekness, in longsuffering,
loving one another.
Strive for
maintain the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace :
One body and one Spirit,
as ye also are called to one and the same hope,
for which God’s call is a guarantee.
One Lord, one faith, one baptism.
One God, and Father of all,
Who is above all, and with all, and in all.
But to each of us individually, grace is granted
according to the measure of Christ’s gift :
Some He made apostles, others prophets,
others evangelists, still others shepherds and teachers.
Thus He equipped the saints for the work of ministry,
for the edification of the body of Christ,
until we all come together
to unity in the faith and knowledge of the Son of God,
to the perfect Man,
to the fullness of the fullness of the Christ.
INTERLUDIUM Ps. 19(18), 2-3, 4-5
Over all the earth their cry resounds.
The heavens proclaim God’s glory,
the firmament shows us the work of his hands.
The day calls it to the next day,
the night passes it on to the night.
No word is spoken, no voice echoes,
no sound is heard;
yet all over the earth, their call resounds,
their message penetrates to the edge of the world.
ALLELUIA
Alleluia.
You, God, we praise.
You, Lord, we praise.
You praise the glorious choir of the apostles.
Alleluia.
GOSPEL Mt 9, 9-13
Follow Me. The man stood up and followed Him.
From the holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to
Matthew
At that time Jesus was moving on
and He saw someone sitting at the toll booth
whose name was Matthew.
He said to him :
“Follow Me.”
The man got up and followed Him.
Now while He was sitting at a table in his dwelling,
many tax collectors and sinners
came sitting with Jesus and His disciples.
When the Pharisees saw this,
they said to his disciples :
“Why does your Master eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
Jesus heard this and said :
“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.
“Go and learn what it means :
I prefer mercy to sacrifice.
“I have not come to call the righteous,
but sinners.”
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Laudato Si
Encyclic by
POPE FRANCIS
On caring for the common home
52. The foreign debt of poor countries has become a way of controlling them, yet this is not the case where ecological debt is concerned. In different ways, developing countries, where the most important reserves of the biosphere are found, continue to fuel the development of richer countries at the cost of their own present and future. The land of the southern poor is rich and mostly unpolluted, yet access to ownership of goods and resources for meeting vital needs is inhibited by a system of commercial relations and ownership that is structurally perverse. The developed countries ought to help pay this debt by significantly limiting their consumption of non-renewable energy and by assisting poorer countries to support policies and programmes of sustainable development. The poorest areas and countries are less capable of adopting new models for reducing environmental impact because they lack the wherewithal to develop the necessary processes and to cover their costs. We must continue to be aware that, regarding climate change, there are differentiated responsibilities. As the United States bishops have said, greater attention must be given to “the needs of the poor, the weak and the vulnerable, in a debate often dominated by more powerful interests”.] We need to strengthen the conviction that we are one single human family. There are no frontiers or barriers, political or social, behind which we can hide, still less is there room for the globalization of indifference.
To be continued
The Bible text in this issue is taken from The New Translation of the Bible,
©Dutch Bible Society 2004/2007.
Considerations from Liturgical suggestions for weekdays
Laudato Si Official English translation