Luke 5:27-32
Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)
Jesus Calls Levi
27 After this he went out, and saw a tax collector, named Levi, sitting at the tax office; and he said to him, “Follow me.”28 And he left everything, and rose and followed him.
29 And Levi made him a great feast in his house; and there was a large company of tax collectors and others sitting at table[a] with them. 30 And the Pharisees and their scribes murmured against his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 31 And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Footnotes:
Cited in the Catechism: In promulgating the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Blessed John Paul II explained that the Catechism "is a statement of the Church's faith and of catholic doctrine, attested to or illumined by Sacred Scripture, the Apostolic Tradition and the Church's Magisterium." He went on to "declare it to be a sure norm for teaching the faith and thus a valid and legitimate instrument for ecclesial communion" (Fidei Depositum). Passages from this Gospel reading are cited in the Catechism, paragraph 588. Citations from parallel passages in other Gospels can be found here.
Commentary
The calling of Matthew
5:27–29. Levi, better known as Matthew, responds generously and promptly to the call from Jesus. To celebrate and to show how appreciative he is for his vocation he gives a banquet. This passage of the Gospel shows us that a vocation is something about which we should be very grateful and happy. If we see it only in terms of renunciation and giving things up, and not as a gift from God and something which will enhance us and redound to others’ benefit, we can easily become depressed, like the rich young man who, not wanting to give up his possessions, went away sad (cf. Lk 18:18ff). Matthew believes in quite the opposite way, as did the Magi who, “when they saw the star, rejoiced exceedingly with great joy” (Mt 2:10) and who gave much more importance to adoring the new-born God than to all the inconveniences involved in travelling to see him. See also the notes on Mt 9:9; 9:10–11; 9:12; 9:13; and Mk 2:14; 2:17 BELOW
5:32. Since this is how Jesus operates, the only way we can be saved is by admitting before God, in all simplicity, that we are sinners. “Jesus has no time for calculations, for astuteness, for the cruelty of cold hearts, for attractive but empty beauty. What he likes is the cheerfulness of a young heart, a simple step, a natural voice, clean eyes, attention to his affectionate word of advice. That is how he reigns in the soul” (St Josemaría Escrivá, Christ Is Passing By, 181).
Notes on Mt 9:9-13
The call of Matthew
9:9. “Tax office”: a public place for the payment of taxes. On “following Jesus”, see the note on Mt 8:18–22.
The Matthew whom Jesus calls here is the apostle of the same name and the human author of the first Gospel. In Mark 2:14 and Luke 5:27 he is called Levi the son of Alphaeus or simply Levi.
In addition to Baptism, through which God calls all Christians (cf. the note on Mt 8:18–22), the Lord can also extend, to whomever he chooses, a further calling to engage in some specific mission in the Church. This second calling is a special grace (cf. Mt 4:19–21; Mk 1:17–20; Jn 1:39; etc.) additional to the earlier calling through Baptism. In other words, it is not man who takes the initiative; it is Jesus who calls, and man who responds to this call by his free personal decision: “You did not choose me, but I chose you” (Jn 15:16).
Matthew’s promptitude in “following” Jesus’ call is to be noted. When God speaks, a soul may be tempted to reply, “Tomorrow; I’m not ready yet.” In the last analysis this excuse, and other excuses, are nothing but a sign of selfishness and fear (different from that fear which can be an additional symptom of vocation: cf. Jon 1). “Tomorrow” runs the risk of being too late.
As in the case of the other apostles, St Matthew is called in the midst of the ordinary circumstances of his life: “What amazes you seems natural to me: that God has sought you out in the practice of your profession! That is how he sought the first, Peter and Andrew, James and John, beside their nets, and Matthew, sitting in the custom-house. And—wonder of wonders!—Paul, in his eagerness to destroy the seeds of Christianity” (St Josemaría Escrivá, The Way, 799).
9:10–11. The attitude of these Pharisees, who are so prone to judge others and classify them as just men or sinners, is at odds with the attitude and teaching of Jesus. Earlier on, he said, “Judge not, that you be not judged” (Mt 7:1), and elsewhere he added, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her” (Jn 8:7). The fact is that all of us are sinners; and our Lord has come to redeem all of us. There is no basis, therefore, for Christians to be scandalized by the sins of others, since any one of us is capable of committing the vilest of sins unless God’s grace were to come to our aid.
9:12. There is no reason why anyone should be depressed when he realizes he is full of failings: recognition that we are sinners is the only correct attitude for us to have in the presence of God. He has come to seek all men, but if a person considers himself to be righteous, by so doing he is closing the door to God; all of us in fact are sinners.
9:13. Here Jesus quotes Hosea 6:6, keeping the hyperbole of the Semitic style. A more faithful translation would be “I desire mercy more than sacrifice”. It is not that our Lord does not want the sacrifices we offer him: he is stressing that every sacrifice should come from the heart, for charity should imbue everything a Christian does—especially his worship of God (see 1 Cor 13:1–13; Mt 5:23–24).
Notes for Mk 12:14, 17
The calling of Matthew
2:14. St Mark and St Luke (5:27–32) both call him “Levi”; the First Gospel, on the other hand, calls him “Matthew” (Mt 9:9–13); but they are all referring to the same person. All three accounts describe the same event. Later on, St Mark and St Luke, when giving the list of apostles (Mk 3:13–19; Lk 6:12–16), include Matthew, not Levi. The Fathers identify Matthew with Levi. Besides it was quite common for Jews to have two names: Jacob-Israel, Simon-Peter, Saul-Paul; Joseph-Caiaphas; John-Mark … Frequently, the name and surname were connected with some significant change in the life and mission of the person concerned. Did Jesus’ saving intervention in this apostle’s life lead to a change of name? The Gospel does not tell us.
Levi-Matthew, as a publican or tax collector (Mt 9:9–13), was sitting at the “tax office”, a special place where one went to pay tribute. Publicans were tax-collectors appointed by the Romans. It was, therefore, an occupation hated and despised by the people; but it was also a much-coveted position because it was an easy way to become prosperous. Matthew leaves everything behind when Jesus calls him. He immediately responds to his vocation, because Jesus gives him the grace to accept his calling.
Jesus is the basis of our confidence in being able to change, provided we cooperate with his grace, no matter how unworthy our previous conduct may have been. And he is also the source of the confidence we need in order to be apostolic—helping others to be converted and to seek holiness of life. Because he is the Son of God he is able to raise up children of God even from stones (cf. Mt 3:9). Cf. the note on Mt 9:9.
2:17. The scribes and Pharisees reproach the disciples, and Jesus replies with a popular proverb: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” He is the doctor of souls, come to cure sinners of their spiritual ailments.
Our Lord calls everyone, his redemptive mission extends to everyone; he affirms this on other occasions, using parables such as that of the marriage feast (Mt 22:1–14; Lk 14:16–24). How, then, can we explain the restriction he seems to place here by saying that he has not come to call the righteous? It is not really a restriction. Jesus uses the opportunity to reproach the scribes and Pharisees for their pride: they consider themselves just, and their reliance on their apparent virtue prevents them from hearing the call to conversion; they think they can be saved by their own efforts (cf. Jn 9:41). This explains the proverb Jesus quotes; certainly his preaching makes it quite clear that “no one is good but God alone” (Mk 10:18) and that everyone must have recourse to the mercy and forgiveness of God in order to be saved. In other words, mankind is not divided into two—the just and the unjust. We are all sinners, as St Paul confirms: “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). Precisely because of this, Christ came to call all of us; he justifies those who respond to his call.
Our Lord’s words should also move us to pray humbly and confidently for people who seem to want to continue living in sin. As St Teresa beseeched God: “Ah, how hard a thing am I asking of thee, my true God! I ask thee to love one who loves thee not, to open to one who has not called upon thee, to give health to one who prefers to be sick and who even goes about in search of sickness. Thou sayest, my Lord, that thou comest to seek sinners; these, Lord, are the true sinners. Look not upon our blindness, my God, but upon all the blood that was shed for us by thy Son. Let thy mercy shine out amid such tremendous wickedness. Behold, Lord, we are the works of thy hands” (Exclamations of the Soul to God, 8).
The Fathers of the Church see this calling by Jesus as an invitation to repentance and penance. St John Chrysostom (Hom. on St Matthew, 30:3), for example, explains the phrase by putting these words in Jesus’ mouth: “I am not come that they should continue sinners but that they should change and become better.”
Source: The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries. Biblical text from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
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