Daily Gospel Reflection
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July 4, 2025
As Jesus passed by,
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.””
It is striking that Jesus calls Matthew while the latter is “sitting at the customs post.” Tax collectors, as we know, were despised by many of the Jewish people for cooperating with a foreign power and for often collecting more than was necessary in order to line their own pockets. This profession not only often involved greed; it involved betrayal.
Yet Jesus sees Matthew and calls him while he is still sitting in the midst of his sins. Jesus does not wait for Matthew to change his life before calling him. Rather, by calling him, Jesus changes Matthew’s life. He draws him out from his familiar, broken situation and into friendship with him. Where does he lead Matthew next? To a dinner party! The first stage in Matthew’s healing involves Jesus calling him out of his current situation; the second stage involves Jesus sharing a meal with him in the community of his disciples and other sinners.
The sacraments of confession and Eucharist correspond to these two stages in Matthew’s conversion story: Jesus calls me out of my sin in confession, and then he nourishes me along with my brothers and sisters in the Eucharist, where we all join Jesus the physician who heals us from our sicknesses.
This passage prompts me to consider the places in my life where I am still sitting at my own “customs post,” stuck in my customary sins. Can I notice Jesus passing by me even there? In those places where I feel powerless to change my own life, can I hear him calling me to get up, and to join him for dinner? To the Pharisee in my own heart who objects and reminds me of my unworthiness, Jesus responds firmly with the words of Hosea: “I desire mercy.”
Prayer
God of all nations and father of the human family, we give thanks for the blessings we enjoy in the United States of America, especially our freedom. We ask for your protection and guidance for public servants and all of those who work for justice and peace in this nation and around the world. Heal us from our differences and unite us, O Lord, with a commitment to achieve liberty and justice for all people, especially those who are most vulnerable. Amen.
Saint of the Day
Pier Giorgio Frassati was an extraordinary, Catholic young man who immersed himself in the struggle for human dignity that defined the 20th century. When he died at the age of 24, the streets were flooded with people who mourned his early death, and it was the poor people whom he served who took up the cause of his canonization.
He was born in 1901 in Turin, Italy, to a wealthy and prestigious family who owned a newspaper; his father was named Italian ambassador to Germany. Pier was an average student and an excellent athlete. His passions included mountain climbing and playing practical jokes—his many friends called him "the Terror.”
As a young man, he threw himself into social action on behalf of the Catholic faith: he served the poor, prayed, and built community. Pier gave his efforts to a number of groups who worked for justice and spread Eucharistic piety and Marian devotion. Pier would give away any spending money he had—he would even offer his fare for the train to a poor person and would walk home instead.
He started a newspaper that took seriously the principles in Pope Leo XIII’s famous encyclical about the dignity of human labor and the rights of workers, Rerum Novarum. “Charity is not enough,” he would say. “We need social reform.”
When Church leaders organized a demonstration in Rome against fascism, he helped lead the crowd. Police began to suppress the protest with violence and knocked the lead banner from someone’s hands. Pier grabbed the banner and, holding it higher, used the pole to fend off other attacks. He and other demonstrators were arrested. He could have received special treatment because of his father’s position, but he refused and stayed with his friends in jail.
One night after his release, fascist supporters broke into his family’s house and tried to attack Pier and his father, but Pier repelled them and chased them out into the street with his bare hands.
He died on this date in 1925 after contracting an illness from his efforts serving the poor and sick. When his tomb was moved to the cathedral in Turin in 1981, it was discovered that no decay had corrupted his body.
Pope St. John Paull II beatified Pier Giorgio Frassati in 1990, and called him "the Man of Eight Beatitudes." “By his example he proclaims that a life lived in Christ's Spirit, the Spirit of the Beatitudes, is ‘blessed,’ and that only the person who becomes a man or woman of the Beatitudes can succeed in communicating love and peace to others,” the pope said at his beatification Mass. “He repeats that it is really worth giving up everything to serve the Lord. He testifies that holiness is possible for everyone, and that only the revolution of charity can enkindle the hope of a better future in the hearts of people.”
Pier’s story and image are used by high school students who come to campus for a summer conference with the Notre Dame Vision program.
Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, you were the young man who fought fascism and poverty with your bare hands—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati is an illustration by Julie Lonneman, who holds exclusive rights to the further distribution and publication of her art. Used with permission.