A realtor in New York City tells the story of a warehouse property that he had been trying to sell for years.  The building had been empty for a long time and was in great need of repairs.  Vandals had damaged the doors, smashed the windows, and strewn trash all over the place.  As he showed a perspective buyer the property, the realtor went out of his way to say that he would replace all the broken windows, that he would bring in a construction crew to correct any structural damage, and that he would pay to have the garbage cleaned up and removed.  Surprisingly, the perspective buyer told the realtor that he would buy his building, but he told him to forget about all the repairs and the cleanup.  “When I buy this place, I’m going to build something completely different here.  I don’t want the building; I want the site.”   My brothers and sisters, that is exactly God’s message to all of us today.  God wants to completely renovate our lives.  He’s not interested in our little efforts to make things look better.  Sometimes our small-time efforts to improve our lives are as trivial as sweeping a warehouse that is slated for the wrecking ball.  When we become God’s creation, our old life is over.  He makes all things new.  All He wants is the site and the permission to build.  And if we give God that chance, that’s when we see really great things happening in our spiritual lives.  God doesn’t care about appearances.  God doesn’t care about what others think.  God’s not really concerned about our history, our past.  God is calling us to change, to conversion.

        Today we hear the story of St. Matthew.  This is a great story.  This is one of the best stories of conversion in the Gospels.  St. Matthew was a tax collector.  He worked for the Romans.  He routinely and legally stole from his own countrymen.  He was a thief, and a liar, and a cheat, and a traitor!  St. Matthew would have been one very unpopular person two thousand years ago.  Literally, two-thousand years ago, tax collectors for the Romans would have considered worse than what we today consider terrorists or child molesters.   It was that bad of a profession.  And as we hear about in our Gospel, Jesus comes along, and Jesus calls Matthew or Levi, to come and be one of His twelve Apostles.  Jesus is not just having dinner with him.  Jesus is not just going to his house, like He did Zaccheus.  Jesus is not giving him a drink of water, or forgiving him his sins, or inviting him to pray with Him.  Jesus calls Matthew to follow Him, to leave his old life behind, and to be an Apostle.  Why would Jesus do this?  Even two thousand years ago, this would have been a public relations disaster.  This would be like the Pope ordaining a terrorist and making him a Cardinal.  It was really that bad.  Jesus wasn’t stupid.  Jesus wasn’t that out of touch.  So why does Jesus call Matthew?  Jesus calls and enables St. Matthew’s conversion, because when He saw him at his tax collector’s station that day, Jesus didn’t see a tax collector.  He didn’t see a liar, or a cheat, or a traitor.  Instead, Jesus saw a soul with extraordinary potential.  Jesus knew that Matthew/ Levi could be St. Matthew.  He gave him that chance when many, many others would not.  St. Matthew became a new creation in Christ.  He wasn’t just cleaned up, or repaired, or made to look good.   Everything was different.

        My brothers and sisters, today Jesus looks at all of us, and Jesus sees our potential, what we COULD become.  And I’ve got to believe that that excites Jesus.  The potential is there.  Jesus isn’t concerned about how we look, or what we have or don’t have, or where we live or work.  Jesus sees way beyond all of that.  He looks at each one of us and He sees a soul that could become a saint.  What a great perspective!  Can you imagine how differently all of us would live our lives if we could share Jesus’ perspective?  St. Matthew was given the opportunity to see that new vision.  Think of the possibilities for ourselves!  And then, think of the possibilities for others!  Could you imagine how much better our world would be if we quit judging one another on stupid, little trivial things, and started seeing each other as potential saints?  It would change our whole outlook.  It would change our whole world.

        Jesus took a chance and gave St. Matthew the opportunity of all eternity.  And look how it turned out?!  Thank God He wasn’t judging by our standards.  Maybe St. Matthew’s story needs to inspire all of us to let Jesus renovate our lives.  And if we’re giving Jesus the chance with our life, is it really too much to ask that we extend that same possibility to our brothers and sisters?   People didn’t forget who St. Matthew was before.  Like God, they just liked him a whole lot more after Jesus’ makeover.  God can do that for us too.  If we let Him!

May God bless us this Sunday,  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit…AMEN !!!

St. Maria Goretti…Pray for us !!!