Annotation XLVI

”He saw a man sitting at the toll-booth, Matthew by name.” — Matthew 9:9

Whether [our] calling comes from merits, or from [merits] foreseen by divine foreknowledge.

Chrysostom, at the beginning of homily 31 on Matthew, discoursing about the calling of Matthew, seems to indicate that the calling of this [man] and of the other Apostles had its occasion from the foreknowledge, in the divine prescience, of their own good will and faith. For thus we read there: “For what reason did he not call him at the same time as Peter and John and the other disciples? Certainly, just as he then came to those [others] and called [them] when he knew they would obey, so now he called Matthew too, when he saw [him] subdued by the fame of [his] miracles, [and that he] would in no way resist. For which cause he also ‘fished for’ Paul after the resurrection. For he who searches hearts and beholds the hidden things of minds was not ignorant of when each one was ready to obey. Therefore, not beginning immediately, when he was harder [more resistant], but after a thousand miracles and [his] notable and widespread fame, he called [him now] as more fit for obeying.” See below, Annotations 87 and 251.