The Feast of St. Matthias, Thursday, May 14, 2020

Acts 1:15-17, 20-26

Peter stood up in the midst of the brothers and sisters (there was a group of about one hundred and twenty persons in the one place). He said, “My brothers and sisters, the Scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand through the mouth of David, concerning Judas, who was the guide for those who arrested Jesus. Judas was numbered among us and was allotted a share in this ministry. For it is written in the Book of Psalms: “Let his encampment become desolate, and may no one dwell in it.” and: “May another take his office.”  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.” So they proposed two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus, and Matthias. Then they prayed, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this apostolic ministry from which Judas turned away to go to his own place.” Then they gave lots to them, and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was counted with the Eleven Apostles.

From the Scriptures we know that St. Matthias followed Jesus from the time of St. John the Baptist’s baptism, which may indicate that both he and Joseph Barsabbas initially were disciples of John.  These two men, of all the disciples besides the Apostles, spent the full three years of the Lord’s public ministry with him, and they saw all his miracles and heard all his teachings.  Their knowledge, sanctity of life, and perseverance led them to be considered to fill the place among the Apostles left void by the defection of Judas.  This need to fill the place shows the care of the Apostles in the earliest days of the Church to preserve the order, one might say “hierarchy”, established by Jesus.  They use lots to determine God’s choice.  It is not clear what form this took.  Whatever the form, it is the equivalent of our “drawing straws”, but it is not actually random, since they pray first to God.  And this would not have been a hasty prayer rattled off, like we often do with Grace Before Meals.  This would probably have been somewhat lengthy, due to the solemnity with which they treated the occasion.  There is no dispute afterwards: both Matthias and Joseph Barsabbas accept the result.  Eusebius preserves a tradition that Matthias was celibate his whole life, and a few of the Church Fathers hand on words which they say he spoke about the need for self denial in order to grow in one’s faith. Barsabbas is said to have preached the Gospel in Judea and was made the bishop of a town southwest of Jerusalem.  He was later martyred there. 

This reading from the Acts of the Apostles raises the question of how to determine the will of God.  Are we to discern, pray and to cast lots as well?  In a real sense, yes we are.  Only God can fully know his own will.  We humans can look back at an event and suppose that it turned out according to God’s will, but we will only know for certain on the last day when everything is revealed.  Since we cannot directly access his will, we do very well in imitating the Apostles.  First, we recognize the need for a decision.  Next, we commit ourselves to conforming ourselves to carrying out God’s will as best as we can, with the help of his grace.  After this, we pray earnestly and humbly for divine guidance.  Then we carefully discern our options.  In this, we look for that which is just, that which is desirable, that which seems best to answer the question or solve the problem, and that which is most prudent or practical.  The option that we select may be difficult, but it must not be morally or physically impossible.  We make our decision with the understanding that we might discover that we have chosen wrongly and that we need to reconsider what we are doing or how we are doing it.  We may have to go through a period of trial and error.  This is how we “cast lots”: by trying different actions, by taking chances, based on the best decision we can make, and by being willing to go a different way if we find out we have erred.  It is not a sin to make an error in the good faith pursuit of God’s will.  It is only a sin to ignore his will or the need to follow it and to make it our own, or, worse, to act purposely against it.