Matthew the Apostle, Evangelist and Martyr

Today we celebrate the Feast of Saint Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist. 
Matthew was a tax collector. He worked for the Roman authorities and collected taxes from his own Jewish community. For this reason, tax collectors were detested and considered as traitors. Tax collectors were usually very wealthy and most of their associates and friends were other tax collectors and sinners as the gospel of says Matthew 9:9-13. 
When Jesus chose Matthew to follow him, Matthew immediately left his profession and changed his way of life to orient and align his life to Jesus's way of life. He had an instant transformation. Immediately after that, he extends an invitation to Jesus to come to his house and meet his friends. This was a beautiful act of evangelization, where he brought Jesus to his friends. Shows he truly loved his friends and desired their salvation. Through his conversion all his friends who were tax collectors and sinners met Jesus and heard His message and received the opportunity to transform their lives for Christ, their Messiah. 
The following reading from the letter of Saint Paul to the Ephesians summarizes the purpose of Jesus's calling and choosing of specific individuals for specific purposes and way of life:
"And he gave some as apostles, others as prophets, others as evangelists, others as pastors and teachers, to equip the holy ones for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the extent of the full stature of Christ" Ephesians 4:11-13
May we each find our calling in life and respond to that calling promptly as Saint Matthew did.
Per tradition Saint Matthew preached the gospel in Ethiopia and was martyred there by the king of Ethiopia.
Saint Matthew pray for us!