Today's gospel passage presents us with a man named Matthew, sitting by the "Customs House" or, in other translations, the "Tax Office". Jesus approaches him and says to him " Follow me " and, we are told, Matthew got up and followed Jesus. Where to?

The next scene has Jesus and his disciples in a house having a meal with tax collectors and sinners. So we assume that Matthew, who will later in the gospel of Matthew be identified as a "tax collector" (Mt 10:3), has followed Jesus into this house.

And in the course of the meal, some Pharisees come in and ask the disciples of Jesus why he eats with tax collectors and sinners. To which Jesus replies, using the words of the Prophet Hosea (from today's First Reading): " Go and learn the meaning of the words: 'What I want is mercy, not sacrifice'. " And Jesus adds: " And indeed I did not come to call the virtuous, but sinners ."

We are not told anything more about Matthew in this context, and it is perhaps quite natural to ask ourselves what was going on in his mind during this episode. We might also ask ourselves what has been our own experience when a total stranger has come up to us and said: "Follow me!"

Given the spate of kidnappings in our country these days, I suppose that most of us would run as fast as we could to get away from such a person.

I remember, however, many years ago in more trusting times, being similarly accosted by persons in downtown Port-of-Spain and, on turning into some alleyway, being surreptitiously offered a gaudy-looking watch or some shiny piece of (costume) jewellery to buy: "Cheap, cheap!"

Considering Matthew's occupation as tax collector, for which he would have been held in contempt and considered a traitor by his fellow Jews, (since he would have been extracting taxes from them on behalf of their Roman overlords), he might have assumed that Jesus was about to offer to make him some kind of "deal".

Instead, however, what Matthew found in the house to which he followed Jesus, was a group of other tax collectors (traitors) and sinners, like himself, all invited to share a meal with Jesus and his disciples.

And when the Pharisees, the "virtuous" came upon that scene and asked Jesus' disciples why he ate with such people, Jesus replied using the words of Hosea quoted above.

What a sense of forgiveness and acceptance this response of Jesus to the Pharisees must have produced in Matthew! Clearly he had not been invited to some tax collectors' "lime" where the latest gossip about who was making the most profit from tax collecting would be shared.

The company was indeed made up partly of tax collectors, but Jesus who had summoned him was saying that, sinner (and "traitor") though he was, Jesus had come to call him. In so doing, Jesus was demonstrating the mercy of God who, through the prophet Hosea, had said: " What I want is mercy, not sacrifice ."

It is perhaps at this point that Matthew who, for whatever reason, had simply followed Jesus physically into the house was given the grace to become a "follower" (or "disciple") of Jesus in a much more profound sense, that is to say one who would share deeply and personally in the mission of Jesus in this world, to bring the love and mercy of God to all.

We have all, I am sure, had experiences in which after accepting an invitation, perhaps quite reluctantly, from someone, a stranger, a friend, a co-worker, we have found ourselves graced, like Matthew, in some utterly unexpected way.

On such occasions, through entering into the company of a person or persons hitherto unknown or unacknowledged, we are brought face to face with who we are, in our weakness and sinfulness, yes, but also in the knowledge, brought about by the trust and acceptance of the other, of our own immeasurable worth in God's eyes.

Let us remember those occasions with gratitude. Let us be thankful for those Jesus persons who have led us into such experiences. Let us thank the Lord who comes and speaks to us, calls or summons us, through such experiences, to be his followers in this world.

Dear Lord, your simple call to Matthew to follow you was, for him, truly a blessing, one that challenged him to a new way of being. Help us to be open and attentive to the calls that you send to us through the Jesus persons with whom we come in contact. Amen.

Dr Everard Johnston is Dean of Studies and lecturer at the Regional Seminary of St John Vianney and the Uganda Martyrs. He is a parishioner of St Patrick's, Newtown