Feast of Saint Matthias, Apostle

 Lectionary: 564

Therefore, it is necessary that one of the men who accompanied us the whole time the Lord Jesus came and went among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day on which he was taken up from us, become with us a witness to his resurrection.”

The Lord's disciples, upon returning to Jerusalem and the Upper Room immediately after the Lord's Ascension, first "devoted themselves with one accord to prayer;" and then, under Peter's leadership, addressed the first item of business, replacing Judas of Iscariot. 

There was no impulse to grief about the traitor's death, but there was an immediate concern that another should take his office. There was no question about their scattering; Peter's dissembling was in the past and  they did not hesitate to his leadership. There may have been some concern about the Lord's family. Father Raymond Brown, the great American biblical scholar, suspected that the Lord's family may have made a move toward that leadership but, if there was, Saint Luke dismissed the story as unimportant.

Nor did they consider leaving their number at eleven. Jesus had chosen twelve and so the number must be twelve. Eventually, it became impossible to maintain that structure as the Gospel spread rapidly throughout the Roman empire, and the Lord's disciples faced opposition, martyrdom, and old age. 

But for the moment, they felt compelled to replace Judas. Peter seemed to know how it was done and the others readily agreed. The new twelfth must be one who knew the Lord as well as the others, who remembered precisely what the Lord had taught, his healings and example, the opposition he'd faced, his passion, death, resurrection, and ascension. Of the seventy-two, only two met that criteria. 

The Holy Spirit would choose between the two, and the lot fell to Matthias. "Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus" seemed to be a good man, and there was no reason to doubt that; but the Spirit had chosen, and Matthias was the man. The crisis had been addressed and resolved, and the Twelve moved on to address the next problems. 

Very often today, as the Roman Catholic Church, under the leadership of Saint Peter's successor, also faces continual problems, critics raise questions about crises that have been faced and decisions made. We should hear them out. Sometimes we can undo at least some of the harm of bad decisions. But sometimes we have to move on. 

We know who we are, the children of our ancestors. We know our sinfulness and our foolishness like we know theirs; we understand their fears and impulsiveness, and recognize our own. We let the past be past. We trust that our ancestors made the best decisions that could be made under the guidance of the same Holy Spirit. We believe in their integrity. We sometimes we need for information; and so we ask our historians to tell us more about the situation of the time and the forces that shaped important decisions. 

But we do not doubt the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit. We find that Presence there in the Upper Room in Jerusalem, and on every page of our history books. God's Spirit remains with us today and we pray that we will be as compliant and eager to be led by the Lord's Anointed as the Eleven were upon returning to the Upper Room.