ST. MATTHEW UNDERSCORES OUR DISCIPLESHIP IN CHRIST IS COUNTERCULTURAL...........

.....As my Wednesday opens, I still stand in need of a ride to my Thursday physical therapy appointment tomorrow at 1 p.m., on Madison Avenue and Van Maren.  Anyone who is available to take me to and from the appointment I would appreciate hearing from right away.....

St. Matthew, the tax collector, who called by Jesus, became one of the Twelve Apostles of Christ, and Four Evangelists of the Gospel, teaches us as followers of Jesus the Christ, that to be called and chosen for Discipleship is a countercultural sign of conventional wisdom.  As a tax collector, Levi, who becomes Matthew, was not a popular person.  Tax collectors were despised, thus by being chosen by Jesus as one of His primary Disciples, was underscoring that Discipleship goes against the grain.  All are welcome to embrace the way of life Jesus proclaims to be the way to God's Kingdom.  Sinners, as well as the Righteous, are called and challenged to the Salvation attained for Humankind by the long awaited  Messiah of God's People.  Matthew's Gospel is written with a decided focus on the Messiahship of Jesus Christ, to provide the Jewish People, as well as Christians, with a confirming insight that Jesus, is the one who is prophetically proclaimed and anticipated through the ages, as the "Messiah", in Aramic; and the "Christ", in Greek; the, "Anointed", of God to be the Redeemer of the World, and the Reconciler between the Divine and Humankind.  My thoughts and prayers are with the one former tax collector, I know personally, my St. Kieran's seminary classmate and hallway mate, Liam Campbell, from Donegal and Derry, in Ireland.  After completing secondary school, Liam worked for a few years in Dublin, in tax collection.....May all of us who are Jesus' Disciples appreciate the countercultural witnesses to the Gospel we are, and affirm who we are, and why we believe in, and follow Jesus the Christ, day, by day, by day...........As We Answer The Call To Follow The Messiah Wh Is Christ The Lord,   Fr.  Troy