Formerly lived in TX, moved to Mass Dec 2016. Received a summons for civil trial for collection. Don't they need to file in MA where I live?

It is possible that the Texas court lacks jurisdiction over you, but also possible that the court has jurisdiction.  Although the Supreme Court has recently narrowed the bases for personal jurisdiciton, nevertheless residence is not the only basis for a court to exercise jurisdiction.  For example, if this claim arose out of a contract which was to be performed in Texas, and/or contained a provision where you agreed to submit to the jurisdiction of the Texas court, personal jurisdiction probably exists, even though you now live in Massachusetts. Bottom line is that you can move to dismiss the Texas action on jurisdictional grounds, but you might not win.  You can also take your chances, default in the Texas action, and when the plaintiff seeks to enforce the Texas judgment, claim that the Texas court had no jurisdiction over you.  If you do that, however, you can only fight the judgment on jurisdictional grounds, you will have waived all other defenses by defaulting; if you have any other defenses, you probably shouldn't take the risk of defaulting.