Matthew

Matthew — also known as Levi — had one of the most dramatic conversion stories among the apostles. He was a tax collector in Capernaum, a profession universally despised in first-century Judaism. Tax collectors were considered traitors who collaborated with the Roman occupiers and grew rich by extorting their own people. When Jesus walked past his customs booth and simply said "Follow me," Matthew stood up, left everything, and followed. It was a moment of radical, instantaneous transformation.

Matthew then threw a great banquet in Jesus' honour, inviting his fellow tax collectors and sinners — an act that scandalized the Pharisees and prompted one of Jesus' most famous declarations: "I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners" (Mt 9:13). The fact that Jesus chose a hated tax collector as one of His twelve apostles was a deliberate, provocative statement about the nature of the Kingdom of God.

The Gospel that bears Matthew's name is the most Jewish of the four Gospels, written primarily for a Jewish-Christian audience. It opens with a genealogy tracing Jesus back to Abraham and David, and systematically presents Jesus as the fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy. Matthew's Gospel gives us the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord's Prayer, the Beatitudes, and the Great Commission. In Catholic tradition, Matthew is the patron saint of accountants and bankers — a reminder that no profession and no past is beyond the reach of Christ's call.