In our time of witness

On the Church Calendar, September 21 is “St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist.” This weekend we shall take the opportunity to learn a bit more about Matthew, the tax collector turned disciple. The fact is, the Bible doesn’t give us a whole lot of information about him (or really about any of the Twelve.) 

Perhaps there are a few lessons for us from that fact. First, the center of the Scriptures is Jesus who came in fulfillment of God’s promise to send a Savior so that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. John the Baptist put it well: “He must become greater; I must become less.” (John 3:30) 

Another lesson to be learned is that humbly following Jesus is hard work which involves sacrifice. Imagine being Matthew having a lucrative occupation as a tax collector and giving it all up in response to Jesus’ call. Or think about what Jesus’ disciples would have pictured when He talked about picking up their cross and following Him. Roman crucifixion would have immediately come to mind. And, in fact, tradition tells us that Matthew was, along with all the others except John, martyred. 

And then there’s this. Despite the attacks, they did not stop working for the Kingdom. 

What about us? While many different people have many different takes on some of the terrible tragedies that we have seen in the news lately such as the assassination of Charlie Kirk and the school shooting at Annunciation Parish in Minneapolis, in some quarters a definite anti-Christian tone has arisen publicly, whether it be mocking people who would believe and pray or true hatred of those who hold to the traditional moral teachings of Christianity. Here’s something else we learn from the Apostles: when the evil one was unsuccessful in tempting them to give up following Jesus, he used intimidation to scare them into silence. It didn’t work. May that also be true of us in our time of witness.