The Feast of Saint Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist celebrated this coming Sunday offers
an important perspective of the life of the Church. When Jesus called Matthew,
who was a tax collector and sinner, to be one of His Disciples, it opened to
door for all sinners to enter the Church. “Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the
table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat
down with Him and His disciples.” (Matthew 9.10) But the religious elite were
not happy with such riffraff sharing the same table with them.
Seeing their cold hearts, Jesus said, “Those who are well
have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this
means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the
righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” (Matthew 9.12-13) The very purpose of
the Jewish Law of sacrifices and prayers and daily offerings were so that the
people of God might grow more loving and more merciful. In the case of the
religious elite, the opposite had occurred. They had grown cold to those who
were not as “holy” as they were.
Jesus was quoting the Prophet Hosea in His response to the
elite. The Prophet was speaking about those who were quite “religious” but
their inner hearts were cold. The full quote says, “I desire mercy rather than sacrifice,
and the knowledge of God rather than whole-burnt offerings.” (Hosea 6.7) If the
Law of Moses was meant to purify their hearts, they had forgotten the purpose
of the sacrifices and offerings in the first place. This is why Jesus said, “Go
and learn what this means.”
The Orthodox way of life is meant to draw us closer to God
and purify our hearts. If we look at the Orthodox way of life as nothing more
than a list of chores we must check off before we die, we will have missed the
entire point. Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen.
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