The Feast of St. Matthew the Evangelist

The Evangelist Matthew Inspired by an Angel

Attributed to Rembrandt
Image from Wikimedia Commons

This is from an medieval work known as The Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voragine:

We may note that in Saint Matthew four things are worthy of consideration. The first is his swiftness to obey; for as soon as Christ called him, he quit his custom-house, leaving his tax accounts incomplete without fear of his masters, and devoted himself completely to Christ. This ready obedience has been a source of error to some, as Jerome recounts in his commentary on that place of the Gospel: 'Porphyry and the Emperor Julian find proof therein either of the ignorance of a lying chronicler, or of the witlessness of them that so promptly followed the Saviour, as if they went off after the first man who called them, without any reason whatsoever. But there is no doubt that the apostles, before they believed in Him, had seen the many signs of His power which went before Him. And of a surety, the very splendour and majesty of His hidden godhead, which shone even in His human countenanec, were enough to draw them the first time they looked upon him. For if a magnet has power to attract rings and bits of iron, how much the more can the Lord of all creation draw to Himself those whom He will!' Thus Jerome.

Perhaps we could reflect on what "swiftness to obey" means to each of us in our time and in our current circumstances.

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