September 21 -- Feast of Saint Matthew

I'm a little baffled. I wrote up a post about Saint Matthew earlier today but it has vanished. Sort of a Matthew mandala -- I can write something like it, but I can't get the original back.

An older, richer Matt than I imagine

Matthew was one of the Twelve Apostles, called by Jesus to assist his (His) ministry. He may or may not have been Levi, son of Alphaeus. I tend to think he was, and that the Gospel writers just skipped over the part where he renamed himself.

Matthew doesn't get a whole lot of individual attention in the Gospels. After he is called, he just tags along. No great lines, no nicknames (unless he was Levi), and no special gaffes or failures of faith. There's the legendary stuff after Pentecost, but that's not where I went today. I went to that one big moment in the Gospels where he quit his job to follow Jesus.

A little better, but what are those hats?

Matthew was a tax collector in the Roman garrison town of Capernaum. Tax collectors were about as popular then as they would be at a Tea Party rally now. They worked for the Roman army that occupied Judea, extorting money from their countrymen to pay for Rome's wars, Rome's bread dole, and Rome's pagan temples. What's more, they had to overcharge the people whom they taxed to supplement their meager salaries, set absurdly low because it was understood that they would be corrupt. The whole system was rotten, so it was re-calibrated to account for the corruption. The Roman governor bribed senators to get his post; he then extorted money from all his appointees, who extorted from theirs, and on down the line. Everyone was expected to take extra from the folks below them -- except of course that the poor peasants were at the bottom of the heap, paying for everyone.

It's a bingo!

I don't figure that Matthew was living large and just responded to Jesus' call in a flash of blind faith.  Maybe, but that's not how I see it.  Instead, I picture this poor bastard, stuck in a job he hates, fleecing his countrymen (who curse him and spit at him and keep their daughters well away from him) for some arrogant foreign bastards who hate him as much as he hates them.  Along comes Jesus, talking about brotherhood and equality, peace and justice.  Jesus isn't poor, he's ascetic.  He's not crazy, he's mystical.  And he's calling to Matthew, a little tick on the ass of Israel, saying "You're worthy of salvation.  Come with me." 

I like to imagine that Matthew's boss is there, or at least a centurion and a couple of legionnaires.  He shoots them one dirty look, a take-this-job-and-shove-it sort of look, and then stands up and walks away.  Whatever the first century Judean equivalent of a one-finger salute was, he shoots that with an angry "Hail Caesar," and walks away.  Peter and Andrew can be the followers in faith; let's have Matthew as the follower in righteous anger.