21 SEPTEMBER (Mt 9,9-13)

The mystery of a vocation is all enclosed in God’s heart. The choices of the Lord are truly mysterious, incomprehensible, indecipherable. However, in the mystery of a vocation, not everything depends on God. God chooses. It is then up to man to respond with prompt obedience and perennial listening to the voice of the one who chose him.

The vocation does not take place only at the time of the initial call. The called by God is every day, every moment called by his Lord. It is in this perennial call that the vocation is lived. Our mistake is to think that God calls only at the beginning and then everything happens for our heart, our mind, our strength and our desires.
In the Old Testament there are many calls: Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, the Judges and Samuel. The ministerial priesthood starts with Aaron. Only Aaron and his sons are called by God. All others are priests by descent. So even after David, and all the kings of Judah, are by descent. The Kings of Israel instead also arise by vocation and riots.

The prophets are the only ones called by God. Every prophetic vocation is special, singular and unique. Here is, for example, how the Lord calls Hosea and what he commands him. This prophet in his own life is the revelation of God’s relationship with his people.

The word of the Lord that came to Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, son of Joash, king of Israel. In the beginning of the Lord’S speaking to Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea: Go, take a harlot wife and harlot’s children, for the land gives itself to harlotry, turning away from the Lord. So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim; and she conceived and bore him a son. Then the Lord said to him: Give him the name Jezreel, for in a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the bloodshed at Jezreel And bring to an end the kingdom of the house of Israel; On that day I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel. When she conceived again and bore a daughter, the Lord said to him: Give her the name Lo-ruhama; I no longer feel pity for the house of Israel: rather, I abhor them utterly. Yet for the house of Judah I feel pity; I will save them by the Lord, their God; But I will not save them by war, by sword or bow, by horses or horsemen. After she weaned Lo-ruhama, she conceived and bore a son. Then the Lord said: Give him the name Lo-ammi, for you are not my people, and I will not be your God (Hos 1,1-9).

The vocation belongs to the great mystery of the freedom of God. Today, Jesus passes by and calls a tax collector and makes one of his disciples of him. It is not the world that needs to understand or accept this will of God. It is the called that has to put himself in the service of the Lord in order to carry out the work of the return of truth and grace onto our earth.

As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post. He said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him. While he was at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat with Jesus and his disciples. The Pharisees saw this and said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” He heard this and said, “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. Go and learn the meaning of the words, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.”

As Hosea also Matthew manifests in his life the true relationship that must always reign between God and every other man. The friends of Matthew, sinners like him, see the true relationship of God with his people, which is of forgiveness, mercy, pity, compassion, but also of vocation, calling, new mission and come close to Christ. The life of the called is a revelation, a manifestation of God in history. The change of mission is already presentation of the truth of God. The God of Jesus Christ is not the God of the Pharisees, of the scribes and of the chief priests. Jesus presents to man a God that loves the sinner and wants him all in his heart. He reveals us a God that does not see the past of a man, but his future in his grace and truth.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints make us manifestations of God.