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MATTHEW Also known as: LEVI Feast Day: SEPT. 21 D espite having written one of the Gos- pels, not a whole lot is known about the apostle Matthew. Before Jesus called him, he was known as Levi, and he was a tax collector. Tax collectors were scorned by ancient society not only because the very nature of their job was to take citizens' money, but because they often lied about the amount owed by citizens so they could keep the differ- ence for themselves. To this end, Matthew was a sinner; in fact, Jesus calls him as much in Mat- thew 9:12. Even so, Matthew was an important apostle because he was an eyewitness to much of Jesus' life. Matthew's apostleship serves as a powerful exam- ple to each of us of the boun- tiful fruits that can come from giving our "yes" to follow the Lord — and our obligation to share the Good News with the world, as Matthew did in his writings. Apostles Know Your JAMES, SON OF ALPHAEUS Also known as: ST. JAMES THE LESS, JAMES THE LESSER Feast Day: MAY 3 T he apostle James, sometimes called James the Less to not be confused with the other apostle James, is the very same James who wrote the Epistle of James. While the name "James" is mentioned several times in the Gospels and refers to several different figures, James the Less is often distinguished by also being referred to as the brother of the Lord in scripture, which, according to scripture schol- ars and historians as well as Church tradition, really means the cousin of the Lord. Tradition and scripture also hold that James was the Bishop of Jerusalem as described in the Acts of the Apostles by St. Paul. The Catholic Encyclopedia describes James the Less as a man with "a grave, meek, and calm mind, nourished with the Scriptures of the Old Testament, given to prayer, devoted to the poor, resigned in persecution, the type of a just and apostolic man." 4 ARCHBISHOP'S CATHOLIC APPEAL | SPECIAL EDITION