September 21, 2020

St. Matthew 

Mt 9: 9-13

As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him. And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 

But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”

New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.

Am I listening?

God is calling me…Am I listening?  Do I have the courage to respond?

Matthew heard Jesus’ call from his post.  He immediately dropped everything and started following Jesus.  I have tremendous appreciation for the courage that it took for Matthew to answer Jesus’s call.  It required that he be open to listening to Jesus’s call, the humility to accept, and then be present with Jesus subject to ridicule/judgment from those who deemed him unworthy of the call. 

There are times in our lives when we are overwhelmed and busy.  When we do not take enough time to be with God in prayer and solitude to listen to the call.  There are other times when we are afraid to accept God’s calling.  We are afraid of taking that risk or we have people who doubt us, and we doubt ourselves.  And yet God keeps calling us.  We pray for the openness, the humility, and the courage to answer the call of God in spite of these fears and doubts, to let God’s glory work through us especially during these turbulent times of pandemic, racial strife, and an election season. 

God is calling me…Am I listening?  Do I have the courage to respond?

—Dr. Sajit U. Kabadi is the Assistant Principal for Mission, Ministry, and Diversity at Regis Jesuit High School in Colorado.

Prayer

Teach me to listen, O God,
To those nearest me,
My family, my friends my co-workers,
Help me to be aware that
No matter what words I hear,
The message is
“Accept the person I am. Listen to me.”
Teach me to listen, my caring God,
To those far from me –
The whisper of the hopeless,
The plea of the forgotten,
The cry of the anguished.

Teach me to listen, O God my Mother,
To myself.
Help me to be less afraid
To trust the voice inside –
In the deepest part of me

Teach me to listen, Holy Spirit,
For your voice-
In busyness and in boredom,
In certainty and in doubt,
In noise and in silence.

Teach me, Lord, to listen. Amen

—Adapted from St. Ignatius by John Veltri SJ