Wednesday, September 21, 2011 {St. Matthew, Apostle, Evangelist (Feast)}

REFLECTION FOR TODAY

Suppose an evil person would offend you, or one whom you judge to be evil or even imagine so. Would you abandon so many others who are good?

-- St. Augustine

READINGS FOR TODAY

First Reading: Ephesians 4:1-7, 11-13

(The Unity of the Body)
1 I urge you, then—I who am a prisoner because I serve the Lord: live a life that measures up to the standard God set when he called you.  
2 Be always humble, gentle, and patient. Show your love by being tolerant with one another. 3 Do your best to preserve the unity which the Spirit gives by means of the peace that binds you together.

4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as there is one hope to which God has called you. 
5 There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 
6 there is one God and Father of all people, who is Lord of all, works through all, and is in all.
7 Each one of us has received a special gift in proportion to what Christ has given.
11 It was he who “gave gifts to people”; he appointed some to be apostles, others to be prophets, others to be evangelists, others to be pastors and teachers. 
12 He did this to prepare all God's people for the work of Christian service, in order to build up the body of Christ. 
13 And so we shall all come together to that oneness in our faith and in our knowledge of the Son of God; we shall become mature people, reaching to the very height of Christ's full stature.

Psalms: Psalm 19:2-5

2 Each day announces it to the following day; each night repeats it to the next.
3 No speech or words are used, no sound is heard; 
4 yet their message  goes out to all the world and is heard to the ends of the earth.
God made a home in the sky for the sun;
5 it comes out in the morning like a happy bridegroom, like an athlete eager to run a race.

Gospel: Matthew 9:9-13

(Jesus Chooses Matthew)

9 Jesus left that place, and as he walked along, he saw a tax collector, named Matthew, sitting in his office. He said to him, “Follow me.” Matthew got up and followed him.
10 While Jesus was having a meal in Matthew's house,  many tax collectors and other outcasts came and joined Jesus and his disciples at the table. 
11 Some Pharisees saw this and asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with such people?”
12 Jesus heard them and answered, “People who are well do not need a doctor, but only those who are sick. 
13 Go and find out what is meant by the scripture that says: ‘It is kindness that I want, not animal sacrifices.’ I have not come to call respectable people, but outcasts.”