The account of Matthew's vocation is very brief, direct and blunt, yet it describes an encounter so personal that it needs no more words to describe that encounter between a public sinner like Matthew, and Jesus, the Son of God.
A radical conversion happened in Matthew. When the Lord passed by the evangelist he stopped, he did not pass by hastily, he looked at him unhurriedly, he looked at him peacefully.
He looked at him with eyes of mercy and forgiveness; He looked at him as no one had looked at him before. And that gaze opened his heart, opened his eyes to find the possibility of a new life, not centered on selfishness or riches, but on the generosity of sharing.
Although sometimes we do not dare to look up to meet our God, He always looks at us first, knows us, seeks us. In our personal story, like Matthew's, each one of us can say: "I too am a sinner on whom Jesus set his gaze" and without judging or condemning me, he invites me to change, to be his disciple to serve others
Fr. Tarcisio
Comments