{"id":27181,"date":"2012-09-21T13:03:33","date_gmt":"2012-09-21T17:03:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2012\/09\/saint-matthew\/"},"modified":"2012-09-21T13:03:33","modified_gmt":"2012-09-21T17:03:33","slug":"saint-matthew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2012\/09\/saint-matthew\/","title":{"rendered":"Saint Matthew"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"St<\/a>O God, who with untold mercy were pleased to choose as
\nan Apostle Saint Matthew, the tax collector, grant that, sustained by his
\nexample and intercession, we may merit to hold firm in following you.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n


<\/span><\/div>\n
Pope Benedict said today,<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
Matthew,
\nthe author of the first of the four Gospels, was a publican – a tax-collector –
\nand the story of his call to become an Apostle reminds us that Christ excludes
\nno one from his friendship. Tax-collectors were considered public sinners, and
\nwe can hear an echo of the scandal caused by the Lord’s decision to associate
\nwith such men in his declaration that he came “not to call the just but
\nsinners”  <\/span>(Mt 2:17). <\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
This is
\nthe heart of the “good news” which Jesus came to bring: the offer of
\nGod’s grace to sinners! The parable of the publican in the Temple makes this
\nsame point: by humbly acknowledging their sins and accepting God’s mercy, even
\nthose who seem farthest from holiness can become first in the Kingdom of
\nHeaven.<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
So, there’s hope for  me (us).<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

O God, who with untold mercy were pleased to choose as an Apostle Saint Matthew, the tax collector, grant that, sustained by his example and intercession, we may merit to hold firm in following you. Pope Benedict said today, Matthew, the author of the first of the four Gospels, was a publican – a tax-collector … Continue reading Saint Matthew<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1710,2869],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27181"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27181\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}