THEIR MESSAGE
GOES OUT TO ALL THE EARTH

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for today’s feast of St. Matthew is today’s Psalm Response: “Their Message Goes Out To All The Earth.”

Today, September 21, being the feast day of St. Matthew, we can certainly say that of Matthew, “His message – his Good News – His Gospel about Jesus – went out to all the earth.”

He certainly heard the call and helped build up the Body of Christ as today’s first reading puts it.

Today, like many days, in Catholic churches around the world, people will hear the words, “A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew.”

LITURGY CHANGES

Those of you who are as old as me know that before the liturgical changes of Vatican II, folks in church didn’t get all the Bible – even if they came to Mass on weekdays besides Sundays.

We had the same Sunday gospels every year. Matthew appeared on 21 Sundays, Luke 18, John 12 and Mark only 3 Sundays. Now we have a three year cycle. There are some repetitions – but there is obvious more focus on in Ordinary Time with one synoptic gospel - the one featured that year – Matthew, Mark or Luke. We’re now in Cycle C – the year of Luke and next year, Year A, we’ll be back to Matthew.


Vatican II told the church to open up the treasures of the scriptures to the faithful – and that has certainly been done. No one can say the Catholic Church is holding back on the scriptures from the people of the Church. # 51 of the Document on the Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, December 4, 1963 says, “The treasures of the bible are to be opened up more lavishly, so that richer fare may be provided for the faithful at the table of God's word. In this way a more representative portion of the holy scriptures will be read to the people in the course of a prescribed number of years.”


That has certainly happened. I’ve met many Catholics who have worn out Bibles – a Bible that sits next to their easy chair – or travels with them. Every year parishes have the opportunity to provide classes, workshops, pamphlets on the gospel writer of that year.

MATTHEW

Every 3 years, when it’s Matthew’s year, we hear that his audience was Jewish much more than the Mark or Luke. So there is the regular refrain and argument all through Matthew, “You have heard …. You have learned …. It is written …. It has been said….” He appeals to the Old Testament more than the others.

Specialists tell us that Matthew’s gospel is well organized and well planned – compared to the loose organization found in Mark. Scholars point out that Matthew has 7 sections. I like today’s gospel. It pictures Mathew sitting there in a tax collector booth – like a toll booth along the highway – with his ledgers – and money collection methods. He’s organized. He’s ready for making and taking in money – that is, till Jesus comes along and reorganizes his life with one call. I like today’s gospel because when we hear, “This man eats with tax collectors and sinners....” I can see Matthew pointing to himself. Me!

It should be noted that the Early Church as well as the Church up till Vatican II, preferred Matthew over Mark.

Scholars like to point out that there probably was an Aramaic Gospel of Matthew before the Greek Gospel of Matthew that we now have. I was taught that this earlier Mathew probably simply consisted of a list of Jesus’ sayings and teachings. Then Matthew Greek organized it into what we have today.


Of course this is conjecture. It helps people who are teaching courses on Matthew. The amazing surprise would be if they found an Aramaic Matthew in some cave or monastery in the middle east at some future date. This is not a far fetched possibility. The famous German scripture scholar Constantine von Tischendorf [1815-1874] figured if there was any hidden scripture texts, they would be in a place like St. Catherine’s Monastery in the Sinai Desert. Surprise, in 1859, that’s where he found the famous document called, “Codex Sinaticus” – which provided the earliest copy of the Septuagint Old Testament and New Testament to date. It helped him and other scholars figure out the best Greek text New Testament – which had variant texts in copies in hand.

CONCLUSION

If you have time today, go through the gospel of Matthew and pick out your favorite text, parable, story or scene. For example: the parable of the sheep and goats or the call of Matthew as pictured in today’s gospel or the Sermon on the Mount or the Visit of the Magi. Or if you’re busy, make it your practice to keep to pray and meditate on the gospel of the year. This Advent we’ll be back to Matthew after finishing a year on Luke.







Sculpture on top - part of an unfinished statue of Matthew by Michaelangelo [1475-1564]