St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist

Today we celebrate the Feast of St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist. It is a truely beautiful and human element in the life of the Church that we often enjoy celebrating Memorials, Feasts and Solemnities. We need to be constantly reminded of those persons who lived before us who also walked in the path of Christ. Undoubtedly, some are more significant figures than others, such as St. Matthew, whose Gospel is traditionally the first you will see when you page through the New Testament.
However, it is also the human element of rejoicing and celebrating as a community along with the heavenly communion of saints. Celebration is indeed something that our Jewish ancestors in faith have always done and still do. There are also those other times when a more somber tone is desired so that we can reflect on our own state in the eyes of God. With that being said, I think one ought to always keep in mind that there is a time for all things (within reason of course), and today we rejoice with the Church in the blessed memory of St. Matthew.

But who was he? As I said, a Gospel in the New Testament bears his name and he was also an Apostle of our Lord. The Daily Roman Missal has this to say:

"Son of Alphaeus, Matthew, also called Levi, was a publican, that is, a tax collector for the Romans. His profession was despised by the Jews. Nevertheless, our Lord called him. Matthew's vocation reminds us that sactity is not reserved for privileged persons. All states in life, all professions, all noble tasks should be sanctified, as the Church teaches. Matthew is one of the Twelve Apostles. We do not know details of his evangelization or of his martyrdom which perhaps took place in Persia. Tradition unanimously acknowledges him as the author of the first Gospel, written in Aramaic, the language that our Lord himself spoke, and translated into Greek afterwards. St. Matthew's name appears among the apostles in the Roman Canon (Eucharistic Prayer I)" (Daily Roman Missal, 4th Ed., Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor, Inc., 1998. P. 1675).

Another interesting thing about St. Matthew is that his common artisitc image is the angelic creature with a human face. (Recall that the four Evangelists are depicted as a human or angelic creature (Matthew), a lion (Mark), a calf (Luke), and an eagle
(John).) St. Irenaus says that St. Matthew had "a human face-an obvious description of his (Jesus') advent as a human being" (Adv. Haer. III, 11, 8), although St. Augustine interchanges St. Matthew's and St. Mark's images(De consensu evangelistarum 1.6.9). However, the consensus after Irenaus goes with his attribution.