The Tax Collector

OF ALL THE SAINTS, the four Evangelists - Matthew, Mark, Luke and John - are the ones most mentioned by God's people. Every day, during Mass, at least one passage from their writings is read, and the priest finishes or introduces his quote with the words, From the Gospel according to Saint... Despite declining numbers in Mass attendance, millions of people throughout the world hear these four names continuously. The odd thing, however, is that very little is known about them.
It is impossible to over emphasise the importance of their Gospels. They are the foundation, the four pillars upon which the whole edifice of our faith, and knowledge of the God-Man, is based. These inspired writings, the four Gospels, have become part and parcel of the very fabric of our being, so a very legitimate question arises: who were their authors in reality? What do we know about their earthly lives? How did they earn their livelihood? What personalities did they have?
One of the ironies of Christianity is that the lives of these four most important founders remain shrouded in mystery. Scholars are at pains whenever they have to piece together a coherent picture of their lives. Yet, despite the difficulties, this is precisely what we have set out to do in this article, so that we may at least have a rough idea of who they were.
The scarcity of biographical material makes the task particularly daunting. Surprisingly, however, after a long and painstaking operation in which unreliable documents are discarded, and through the practice of a great deal of common-sense, one is not left empty handed: seek, and you will find, is the encouragement the Gospels themselves give!
Our first article will deal with Saint Matthew, also called Levi, because he was probably the first to commit his Gospel to writing. All the collections of the Gospels have begun with his, and most historians agree that he was the first to write out a full account of the Saviour's life and teachings. Moreover, Matthew's Gospel is the leitmotif for the current liturgical year.

Mysterious background

The liturgical calendar remembers Matthew as an apostle, evangelist and martyr. We known very little about his family, infancy and childhood. He may have been born in Ethiopia, and then moved to Capernaum in Galilee with his father Alpheus. We know nothing about his mother.
The first reliable information is given in his own Gospel, where the circumstances of his 'calling' by Jesus himself are described. This occurs at the beginning of Jesus' public ministry. Mathew must have been around 25-30 years of age at the time. He was living in Capernaum, and earning his living as a tax- collector on behalf of the Romans.
Capernaum was by no means an important city. However, it was on the shore of the lake of Tiberias (also called lake of Gennesaret or Sea of Galilee), thus making it an important leg of the road linking Syria with Palestine. The Romans had therefore stationed an important tax-collecting booth there, which was guarded by a sub-cohort of Roman soldiers. Matthew was probably the director or an important clerk in that office.
Jesus had settled for while in that city. His ministry had just begun, but he was already famous on account of his miracles and his teachings. Crowds gathered around him wherever he went.
One day Jesus was at Gerasa, a city on the opposite side of the lake from Capernaum, where he had exorcised two people possessed by daemons. This, however, had frightened the wits out of the inhabitants of that city, and they begged him to leave. Jesus therefore returned to Capernaum on his boat, where he was welcomed by a large crowd. A man who had been paralysed since birth was brought to him, and Jesus healed him there with the words, Stand up and walk. It was immediately after this incident, while walking away from the crowd, that Jesus saw Matthew sitting in his office. This is the account that Matthew himself gives in chapter 9 of his Gospel:
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 and not sacrifice.' For I have come to call not the righteous, but sinners.

Disreputable profession

Mark and Luke, in their account of the same episode, call Matthew with the name of Levi. The identity between the two is certain because the three accounts are identical except for that exception. As was customary among the Jews, Matthew probably had two names, one Hebrew, the other Greek or Latin, which was used in his dealings with the Gentiles.
The account of the call of Matthew-Levi contains three elements of fundamental importance: Matthew's profession, his readiness at responding to Jesus' call, and the great banquet he gave in Jesus' honour in his own home.
The Jews held those who collected taxes on behalf of the Romans with great contempt. They were referred to depreciatively as publicans, and were seen as base instruments through which the Roman dominators extorted money and practiced other abuses. Being public transgressors of Moses' Law, they were associated with prostitutes.
No self-respecting, observing, patriotic Jew would ever have considered embarking on such a profession. The Romans exacted a certain percentage of tax, but then the tax-collectors usually applied a surcharge, and often quite a high one. In this way many of them amassed great personal wealth. They were dishonest, threatening cheaters, with a cynical lack of mercy for anyone. They had no qualms of conscience at extorting money from poor and honest people, like fishermen, to enrich themselves and the hated Roman invaders. They sold the blood of their brethren, and often used violence to extort taxes.
These tax collectors often made huge profits, which they gladly exhibited in public. Some became scrooges, and amassed great fortunes in the form of houses, land and jewels; others would squander their wealth in banquets, feasts, orgies, luxuries and vices. These reckless, immoral individuals were simply all out for themselves.
Matthew probably belonged to the second category. He was not attached to money like a miser. This we know from his immediate, joyous response to Jesus' call, and the banquet he gave in honour of his master. Jesus' invitation implied an immediate conversion, and Matthew left his profession with its quick and easy profits without misgivings. He may have been a shallow, disorderly man, but his heart was generous and open to change, and Jesus, reading his heart, saw this and called him.
Matthew, before meeting Jesus, must already have heard of the deeds of this new teacher because everyone was talking about him at the time. He may have witnesses his miracles and heard his teachings, and he must have been drawn to the new and noble life indicated by the charismatic teacher, but he must have regarded himself as unworthy to even approach Jesus on account of the sinfulness of his life. But when Jesus himself approached him, read his innermost soul, and pronounced the words, follow me, all his doubts vanished, and his heart was filled with joy.

Three virtues

The early Church Fathers, in commenting Matthew's conversion, highlight three aspects. First, that Matthew's immediate acceptance was proof that his heart had remained good notwithstanding his disreputable profession and way of life. Secondly, that Matthew welcomed the change with joy. This is proved by his giving a banquet to celebrate Jesus' proposal, as though a great light had entered his life. Thirdly, that Matthew was fundamentally a humble soul.
Matthew knew very well that he was a sinner, but he now also knew that the Lord had forgiven him. Matthew did not forget his past. He was practical and down-to-earth, and treasured the lessons of his past life in order to improve the new one in Christ. This is proved by the fact that his Gospel recounts, without any note of resentment, how the Pharisees reproached Jesus for eating in the house of a sinner (i.e., himself). Moreover, in the next chapter, in listing the 12 apostles, he refers to himself as Matthew, the publican, thus revealing sincerity and a humble recognition of his past life.
Matthew does not give us any more information about himself in his Gospel. He was to witness the whole divine ministry of Christ in the following three event-filled years right up to the Resurrection of his Master. The Acts of the Apostles mention him by name, together with the other ten apostles just after the Jesus' Ascension in Heaven. The Acts describe him as participating in the election of Matthias as a substitute for Judas Iscariot. Furthermore, he is standing with the other eleven on the day of Pentecost, when Peter announces to the crowd in Jerusalem that Jesus is both Lord and Christ (Messiah).
How did Matthew receive all these momentous events in his soul? Certainly with joy and enthusiasm, because this is one of the characteristic traits that runs through his Gospel. His exposition of the events is clear and concrete - traits he must have developed in his previous profession. His tone is sober; his descriptions are brief, but always to the point; his exposition is orderly, and his record of the Lord's teachings are extremely faithful. Rather that being a biography of Jesus Christ, this Gospel strives to record the Lord's word on our lives and the world. Matthew describes the tumultuous events leading up to the Passion and the Resurrection in his own, very personal style, with a nuance of hope and joy running throughout the account. Matthew is also particularly drawn by Jesus' personality. He is the author of the Our Father, that most famous prayer given by Jesus.
Matthew wrote in Aramaic, the spoken language of the Jews at that time. He was one of the few among the apostles who knew how to write that language; something he had learned as a tax collector. He therefore wrote in the language of the Jews and for the Jews. Beginning with the genealogy of Jesus, he shows how the Messiah issued from the seed of Abraham, and by continually quoting the prophets, Matthew tried to show his countrymen how in Jesus Christ all the prophecies in their religion had been fulfilled.
Matthew's Gospel is also the most 'ecclesiastical' of the Gospels, because he always has the community's well-being at the back of his mind. It is in his Gospel (in passages 16:18; 18:17, and 12:50), that we find the word ekklesia, translated as 'church', and with the meaning of a 'fraternal community'.
We learn from Eusebius of Cesarea, who was living in the third century, of a tradition which maintained that Jesus, at the beginning of his ministry, had instructed his Apostles to remain in Jerusalem for 12 years after his death. This means that Matthew must have remained in that city spreading the word of God among his countrymen right up to the year 42 A.D. Eusebius also gives other information about Matthew's Gospel, Matthew and John are the only disciples to have left us an account of the life of the Lord. Tradition has it that they did so out of necessity. In fact Matthew, who preached first of all among the Jews, decided to write his Gospel to substitute for his absence just before leaving to evangelise other peoples. Origen, a contemporary of Eusebius, wrote, I have learned from tradition that, of those four Gospels which are the only ones recognised by God's Church, the first to be written was Matthew's, who was first a tax-collector, and then an apostle of Jesus Christ. Soon, the original text in Aramaic was translated in Greek, and this is the only version to come down to us.

Missionary

Around the year 42 A.D., therefore, the Apostles began to disperse to the four corners of the world to preach the 'good news'. We do not know with certainty where Matthew went. Tradition has it that his journeys took him to Persia (Iran), to the Pontus (in Turkey), to Syria, to Macedonia, and even all the way to Ireland. His last days were supposedly spent in Ethiopia, where some historians believe he was born, and where he died in 69 A.D.
The manner of his death is also uncertain. Heracleon, the Gnostic, writes of a natural death. Others, instead, attribute to him a martyr's death, but there is little consensus on the type of martyrdom. The most popular legend maintains he was killed while celebrating the Eucharist.
The story goes that Matthew had worked a wondrous miracle in Ethiopia. In Jesus' name, he had brought back to life Iphigenia, daughter of Egipo, the king of Ethiopia. The miracle produced such an impression that both king and people converted. Egipo, however, was succeeded to the throne by Hirtaco, who fell in love with Iphigenia, and began importuning her. Iphigenia, who had decided to dedicate her whole life to God, rejected the king. Hirtaco then sought Matthew's intercession, and asked him to persuade Iphigenia to change her mind, but Matthew refused to comply with the king's request, and so Hirtaco ordered his execution. Iphigenia afterward donated her most precious possessions for charitable activities, and for the construction of a Basilica dedicated to her Evangelist.

Final resting place

We do not the place of his burial in Ethiopia. His remains were later taken to various places around the Mediterranean, and in the end reached Elea, an ancient Greek city in the Campania region in Italy, the city of the philosophers Parmenides and Zeno. Later, during the fall of the Roman Empire, the inhabitants of Elea left the city with the saint's relics to flee from the barbarian invaders, and hid them in an undisclosed location near the place where the Fiumarello and Alento rivers meet.
Gradually, the exact place of burial was lost, but some centuries later, a pious women dreamed the precise location of the remains. She confided her dream to the bishop of Paestum, who thenceforth went to the place and, digging with his own hands, unearthed the remains. They were then translated to the cathedral of Paestum, and then to Salerno. The body, however, had to be hidden again on account of various wars, but it was found yet again in 1080. A temple, consecrated by Saint and Pope Gregory VII, was specifically built to honour the relics. An authentic historical document is a letter written by this Pope to Saint Alfano, in which the Pope congratulates the saint for the discovery of the relics. It is in the cosy, well-decorated crypt of that cathedral that Matthew's remains have been continuously venerated since that time.
His feast day is celebrated twice a year: on 21 September and on 6 May, the day in which his relics were translated to Salerno. Saint Matthew is the patron of bankers, bank-clerks, customs officials, moneychangers, accountants, bookkeepers and, of course... tax collectors.