Feast of Saint Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist

Lectionary: 643

I, a prisoner for the Lord,
urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received,
with all humility and gentleness, with patience,
bearing with one another through love,
striving to preserve the unity of the Spirit
through the bond of peace....

Amid all the presentations of critical analysis about the settings of the New Testament authors, their situations, audiences, and so forth, I don't remember much about the Roman jail. I don't suppose it was a very pleasant place although it was apparently more open to the public's coming and going than the county and city jails I've visited in the US. I understand that the prisoners depended upon their friends and family to bring them food and provisions. Someone provided Saint Paul also with pen and ink and then managed to deliver his letters to the many cities he addressed. 

But he surely mastered the art of living with "humility and gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another through love, (and) striving to preserve the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace" among the rough characters in the prison gang. They had to get along with each other somehow, just as prisoners do today. 

When I visited the jails in Louisiana, finding some familiar neighbors and parishioners, I didn't hear many complaints about their companions. It was noisy, with televisions and radios blaring, and no sound absorption whatsoever; but they were used to noise at home. They complained about being in there, and many sorely missed their families. But the locals knew each other well, and most of them had been there before. They might have welcomed a sociable, intelligent, and well-traveled comrade like Saint Paul. 

And he brought the skills he'd learned in church to the jail. They were just as varied a lot as any congregation. Many were related to one another -- so you don't say nothing about nobody. Some were educated, many were illiterate. (Most Christians and Catholics can read but don't, which amounts to the same thing -- illiterate.) Some were interested in the new guy; others avoided strangers. You go along to get along. 

Churches are different from jails mainly for their apostles. Where the prisoners are sent to jail, the pastors are sent to their parishes. (The word apostle means sent.) Today we celebrate Saint Matthew, while we read Saint Paul's letter. Apostles form the nucleus of the church as we receive the Word of God from them. We gather close enough to hear them speak, and to know them as fellow human beings. 

There is no church without people and apostles are people too. We get used to their accents, mannerisms, prejudices, and expectations. We pay attention to their likes and dislikes even as we eagerly soak up from them whatever they have to say about the Lord, his saints, his Church, and his teachings. And it's often necessary that we understand their shortcomings. Nobody's perfect; we're all vessels of clay. We care about those sent to us, and sometimes care for them. I see a lot of that caring as my aging companions retire into positions of assistant pastor or pastor emeritus. Saint Paul never retired but he did need a lot of assistance while he was jailed, and he had at least one health crisis, apparently about his eyes. 

The Catholic Churches repeatedly celebrates the apostles. Our faith is built on their credibility, because they provided the connection of virtually all believers to the ministry, teaching, and story of Jesus. He commanded them to "Do this in memory of me!" We would not do that had they not kept faith. His memory and its saving impact would be totally lost. We still depend upon the credibility of those sent to our parishes, schools, hospitals, and jails. 

The many feast days of apostles also remind us that, to be faithful, we must be faithful to them and to one another. No one knows the Lord in isolation. We too must 

...live in a manner worthy of the call (we) have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love, striving to preserve the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace....