Follow Me

Follow Me

September 21, 2012

Feast of St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist

By Melanie Rigney

… Grace was given to each of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. And he gave some as Apostles, others as prophets, others as evangelists, others as pastors and teachers, to equip the holy ones for the work of ministry, for building up the Body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the extent of the full stature of Christ. (Ephesians 4:7, 10-13)

Their message goes out through all the earth. (Psalms 19:5)

As Jesus passed by, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post. He said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him. (Matthew 9:9)

Piety

Lord, following You is such a privilege… and such a challenge. Help me to remember You invite all, not just me, not just people like me, but all.

Study

Do you think any of us when we were children thought, “Wow! When I grow up, I’d like to be a tax collector!”?

Probably not, anymore than they think about being accountants or call center agents or research scientists. We likely wanted to grow up to be people we saw: Moms and dads. Singers or actors, maybe. Or bus drivers. Or teachers or librarians or professional athletes or beauticians or gardeners.

But as we grow up, we realize that God sees us for who we are, but also for who we can be. And that’s generally not about what we do for a living, even if it’s a job as despised as being a tax collector was in Matthew’s day and to an extent remains today. And with His grace, we can become what He and we both desire—loving, faithful sisters and brothers—regardless of how that grace manifests itself, regardless of whether we do it proclaiming the Word, singing it, reflecting it in social justice or in any other of a million ways that are pleasing to him. We’ll never know for sure how well we do any of it, or the total impact we have on building up the Body of Christ. All we know is that, as the psalmist said, we are called to share it throughout all the world.

Action

The babe chicks of the Arlington Cursillo 135^th Women’s Weekend have been back at home for nearly a week now, and their Fourth Days are settling in, perhaps with a thud. Consider sending a post-Weekend e-mail to someone on team (details at http://www.arlingtoncursillo.org/be-still-and-know/3577/) to share with the babe chicks and keep that fire alive.