On the good news given us by St. Matthew
The article celebrates the feast of St. Matthew, noting his dual names Levi and Matthew and his transition from tax‑collector to apostle. It explains the historical stigma of Jewish tax collectors and how Matthew’s conversion serves as an example of repentance and divine mercy. The piece outlines the early origins of Matthew’s Gospel—likely an Aramaic text—its emphasis on Jewish tradition, and its portrayal of Jesus as the fulfillment of the Old Law. It reflects on Matthew’s symbolic depiction as a winged man in Revelation and his artistic representation by Caravaggio.
10 days ago
The article marks the September 21 feast of St. Matthew by examining his conversion, the Gospel traditionally attributed to him, and its central message: through God’s grace, a sinner can become a saint and help lead others toward salvation.
Matthew is identified in the New Testament by two names, Levi and Matthew, a practice that was common among first-century Jews. Apart from his work as a tax collector, little is known with certainty about his life, later missionary activity, or death; traditions associate him with places including Parthia, Persia, and Ethiopia.
The article explains that Jewish tax collectors were widely despised because they collaborated with the Romans and often collected more than was required for personal gain. Against this background, Jesus’ call of Matthew illustrates Christ’s willingness to extend mercy to people viewed as sinners and social outcasts.
After encountering Christ, Matthew responded by holding a banquet. Citing the Venerable Bede, the article presents the feast as both a public celebration and a sign of Matthew’s interior transformation: his conversion became an example of repentance, drew other sinners toward salvation, and marked the beginning of his apostolic mission.
The article notes that many scholars regard Mark as the earliest written Gospel, probably composed roughly 35 years after Jesus’ Resurrection. It also describes an older view, attributed to the Church Father Papias, that Matthew first recorded Jesus’ sayings in a Hebrew or, more likely, Aramaic form within a decade of Jesus’ death and Resurrection; this material may have contributed to the canonical Greek Gospel.
Matthew’s Gospel is presented as being directed especially toward Jewish converts or prospective converts. Its extensive use of the Old Testament emphasizes that faith in Jesus is portrayed not as abandoning Judaism but as its fulfillment and perfection.
The Gospel repeatedly portrays Jesus in relation to Israel’s history and Jewish Scripture. Matthew highlights Jesus’ identity as the Son of David, compares aspects of His life with Israel’s experience, and presents Him as a new Moses who gives the New Law from a mountain.
A major theme in Matthew is the Kingdom of Heaven, which corresponds to the Kingdom of God described in Mark and Luke. The article explains that Matthew uses “Heaven” in keeping with Jewish reluctance to pronounce the divine name directly.
According to the article, Jesus inaugurates the Kingdom through His preaching and miracles, but its complete realization remains future. The Church is called to advance its coming, pray for its fulfillment, and make disciples of all nations.
Matthew’s thirteenth chapter develops this theme through parables, including those of the sower, the weeds and wheat, the mustard seed, the hidden treasure, and the net. These parables express the Kingdom’s present establishment through Jesus alongside its still-incomplete fulfillment.
The article describes all four Gospels as documents of faith intended to bring readers into contact with Jesus and lead them toward salvation. They present Christ’s works and teaching while also placing demands on the lives of those who respond to Him.
Readers are encouraged to study Matthew’s Gospel by reading one chapter each day until the October 18 feast of St. Luke, then continuing with Luke’s Gospel. The article concludes with a prayer asking St. Matthew to intercede that Christians may become worthy of Christ’s promises.
The accompanying comments focus largely on Matthew’s Gospel, particularly Matthew 19:9 and its reference to an “unlawful” marriage. One interpretation offered in the discussion is that the phrase refers to unions prohibited by Jewish law, including certain incestuous or otherwise invalid relationships.
The article’s author responds that Matthew’s wording need not represent a correction of Jesus’ teaching, but may apply it to a broader social setting. He notes that Mark expands the discussion by referring to a woman divorcing her husband, a situation possible in Roman society but not within the Jewish environment addressed by Matthew.
Other comments discuss the Church’s historical teaching on marriage, including the development of restrictions on kinship marriages, the opposition to divorce and remarriage, and the later formal articulation of marriage as a sacrament. These contributions extend the discussion beyond the article’s central focus on Matthew’s conversion and Gospel.
Examine how Matthew’s Gospel embodies Catholic teachings on repentance
Matthew’s Gospel presents repentance as a graced, lifelong conversion: turning from sin toward Christ, bearing visible fruits, receiving mercy, and remaining faithful within the Church as the Kingdom approaches.
John the Baptist begins Matthew’s public narrative with the urgent proclamation: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt 3:2). Jesus takes up the same message at the beginning of his ministry (Mt 4:17). Repentance is therefore not merely regret over past wrongdoing; it is a decisive change in one’s way of thinking and acting because God’s reign has drawn near. Pope John Paul II explains that metanoia means changing one’s way of thinking and acting, and that it requires a transformation of conscience produced by grace.
Matthew thus connects repentance with salvation. The Church’s catechetical tradition summarizes this meaning by teaching that without repentance there can be neither salvation nor new life. Repentance is a return to the Father and an acceptance of his merciful forgiveness.
John’s preaching challenges those who presume that religious identity or ancestry makes conversion unnecessary. In Matthew 3:7–10, he rebukes those who rely on being children of Abraham rather than producing a life worthy of repentance. The Pontifical Biblical Commission observes that Matthew contrasts sinners who accepted John’s preaching with religious leaders who considered themselves righteous and therefore refused to listen.
This theme reaches a climax in the parable of the two sons (Mt 21:28–32). The son who initially refuses his father’s command but later obeys represents those who repent; the son who speaks obediently but does not act represents outwardly respectable people who fail to do God’s will. Jesus therefore teaches that repentance is demonstrated by obedience, not merely by religious language.
Matthew does not reduce repentance to an interior emotion. John demands “fruit worthy of repentance” (Mt 3:8), and Jesus teaches that genuine conversion appears in conduct: mercy, reconciliation, purity of heart, prayer, fasting, and love of enemies.
John Chrysostom develops this point by insisting that repentance means not only abandoning evil but also doing corresponding good. Someone who has taken unjustly should become generous; someone who has wounded others should begin to bless and serve them. In this sense, Catholic repentance includes both contrition—sorrow for sin—and a real reorientation of life, including reparation where possible.
Matthew’s teaching also guards against a merely external penance. Jesus criticizes fasting and prayer performed for human praise (Mt 6:1–18). The repentant person seeks God’s mercy rather than public admiration. True conversion reaches the heart and then reshapes behavior.
Jesus’ mission is directed precisely toward those who recognize their need for healing. When criticized for eating with tax collectors and sinners, he declares: “I have come not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mt 9:13). Matthew himself embodies this teaching: Jesus calls a tax collector to become his disciple (Mt 9:9–13).
This does not mean that sin is unimportant. Jesus’ mercy is an invitation to conversion, not an approval of sin. His severe warnings to unrepentant towns and hypocritical leaders show that rejecting mercy has consequences (Mt 11:20–24; 23:13–36). The Biblical Commission accordingly describes Matthew’s Jesus as compassionate toward humble penitents but stern toward those who refuse his message.
Matthew places repentance within a community shaped by forgiveness. In the Lord’s Prayer, Christians ask forgiveness while committing themselves to forgive others (Mt 6:12). In Matthew 18, Jesus teaches that forgiveness must be extended repeatedly, because disciples themselves live continually from God’s mercy.
This corresponds to the Church’s understanding that conversion involves several dimensions: compunction, penitence, and reparation. It changes both thought and behavior and remains central to Christian life. For Catholics, this vision finds sacramental expression in the Sacrament of Penance, where the sinner turns to God, confesses sin, receives absolution, and undertakes amendment of life.
Matthew does not portray repentance as only the first step before baptism. Jesus continues to summon his disciples to conversion through the Sermon on the Mount, his warnings about judgment, and his teaching on humility and forgiveness. Catholic tradition therefore understands repentance as an enduring movement toward God: an interior change that frees a person from sin and restores the fullness of divine life.
Matthew’s Gospel consequently presents repentance as:
In Matthew, repentance is not despair over failure but the doorway into the Kingdom: the sinner abandons self-justification, receives Christ’s mercy, and begins to live as a faithful disciple.