Saturday in the First Week of Ordinary Time, January 15, 2021

Mark 2:13-17

Jesus went out along the sea. All the crowd came to him and he taught them. As he passed by, he saw Levi, son of Alphaeus, sitting at the customs post. Jesus said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed Jesus. While he was at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners sat with Jesus and his disciples; for there were many who followed him. Some scribes who were Pharisees saw that Jesus was eating with sinners and tax collectors and said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus heard this and said to them, “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.”

The Gospel reading for today’s Mass tells us, in the words of St. Mark, how Levi, also called “Matthew”, was called by Jesus to follow him.  In order to understand this reading, we ought to look first at what exactly Jesus was telling Matthew to do.  Jesus is walking along the sea during the day.  As he walked along, he spotted Matthew at his custom’s post and said to him, “Follow me.”  In English, the Lord could be directing Matthew to a particular place in order to see or hear something of benefit to him.  The duration of “follow me” here is brief: Matthew follows, he sees, and he is free to resume what he was doing before.  The Lord could also be directing Matthew to follow him for some more persistent period of time, but in English this is not so clear.  The Greek word translated here as “Follow me” has the meanings of “Attend to me” or “Accompany me”.  It is in the present active imperative which indicates a continuous action (the aorist imperative, by contrast, would indicate “Follow me this once to this place.”).  Jesus is calling on Matthew to accompany him or to attend to him from now on.  He is no longer to attend to his own affairs but to those of the Lord.  And Matthew “got up and followed Jesus”.  

We might wonder a little at the immediate willingness of the men who became Apostles to follow the Lord.  We are told that Peter, Andrew, James, John, Matthew, and the others simply got up and followed the Lord.  Most people, faced with far less pivotal decisions to make, consider their options before deciding on one.  It helps if we keep in mind that most of the future Apostles had heard the Lord preach.  Andrew and John had spent the better part of a day alone with him, conversing.  Some, such as Bartholomew, saw him perform miracles before joining him.  In short, they did have a chance to think about him and who he was.  Nevertheless, their immediate response in the moment hints at something more.  It would be one thing if they had weighed their thoughts and feelings and then chosen to join him at a time of their choosing.  Upending their lives at the instant of his call is another.  St. Jerome comments that a certain brightness of his divinity shone forth in his physical features and attracted followers to him.  He compares this to the invisible power of a magnet that draws bits of iron to itself.

Very notably, the Lord chooses odd times for calling his Apostles.  He calls them when they are busy.  Not just busy, but when, literally, they are enmeshed in their work.  He calls them at the least possible times.  Peter and Andrew were casting their nets into the sea.  Later, he calls James and John, who were mending their nets at the time.  Matthew, in the present reading, is engaged with his accounts and receiving tax payments.  Jesus deliberately calls people to follow him when it least convenient for them.  And they get up and follow him anyway.  This is a sign of his power, his hold on people.  But he does not exercise it in order to indulge himself.  He does this so that later, when the faith of his followers is tested by weariness or persecution, they may recall their experience of his call to them, and so persevere.  

The Lord continues to call us in the same manner today, whether to perform a single action or to turn our lives entirely over to him.  He does not wait for an opportune moment, but seemingly for the least opportune moment.  Not when we are praying peacefully, but when we are chasing our children, waiting on tables, lying on our sickbed, or overwhelmed at work.  And so, with the example of St. Matthew before us, let us not answer him, “I will follow you, Lord; but let me first take my leave of them that are at my house” (Luke 9, 61), but as he did, getting up at once and leaving it all behind.