The Feast of St. Matthias, Saturday, May 14, 2022

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.

Not long after the Ascension of the Lord, the Apostles felt an urgent need to replace Judas Iscariot.  According to St. Luke, Matthias was chosen as the new twelfth Apostle even before fifty days elapsed after the Lord’s Resurrection from the dead.  In St. Luke’s account of this, St. Peter addresses one hundred and twenty followers of Jesus, gathered together in the house where the Lord Jesus had eaten the Last Supper with them.  The lectionary calls them “brothers and sisters”, whereas the Greek only says “brothers”, Also, the Greek text tells us that Peter opened his address to the crowd of disciples, saying, “Men, brothers”, not “My brothers and sisters”.  Still, female followers of the Lord, principally His Virgin Mother and almost certainly Mary Magdalene, must also have gathered there.  

“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.”   Noteworthy is the fact that Peter declares that the Scriptures “had to be fulfilled” (or, more literally, “The Scripture was necessary to be fulfilled”).  Peter does not speak of the forewarnings of the Lord Jesus.  Perhaps he does not mention them lest the other disciples demand to know why the Apostles did not prevent Judas from betraying Jesus.  At any rate, Peter emphasizes the necessity for this betrayal to happen, seeming to assign its cause to the Holy Spirit — that is, the Holy Spirit foretold that this would happen and so it was inevitable.  Jesus has also spoken of its certainty: “The Son of Man indeed goes, as it is written of him. But woe to that man by whom the Son of Man shall be betrayed. It were better for him, if that man had not been born” (Matthew 26, 24).  But the betrayal was an act of free-will.  The Holy Spirit foresaw, as it were, the betrayal, but did not cause it or suspend Judas’s free-will.  “Let his encampment become desolate, and may no one dwell in it. and: May another take his office.”  The first quotation is from Psalm 69, 25.  Psalm 69 should be read in its entirety in order to understand why Peter quotes it in relation to Judas.  For the Christian, it is the heart-rending prayer of the Lord during his Passion, in which he speaks of the condemnation of Judas.  The second quotation is from Psalm 109: “When he shall be judged, let him be condemned and let his prayer become sin.  Let his days be few;

And let another take his office” (Psalm 109, 7-8).  Since verses from these Psalms were seen as speaking about Judas, we ought to marvel at the sober words the Evangelists use when they mention him: there is no ferocity or desire for vengeance in their words.  They simply tell what happened. 

“Therefore, it is necessary that one of the men who accompanied us the whole time the Lord Jesus came and went among us.”  Again, it is noteworthy that Peter does not say that Jesus had told him that Judas must be replaced.  Peter’s apparent need to pick a successor for Judas has its roots in the ancient idea of “place”.  In the order of creation, everything and everyone had a certain “place” or position, whether in geographic or social terms.  The stars in the sky each had their own specific places.  Humans, too.  In the Book of Job, one of the interlocutors speaks of the end of the wicked man’s life: “The eye also which saw him shall see him no more;

Neither shall his place any more behold him” (Job 20, 9).  Jesus had appointed men of his choosing to their places as Apostles, and one of these was Judas: “Judas was numbered among us and was allotted a share in this ministry.”  If an Apostle died, his “place” remained and must be filled by another in order to uphold the order of the world.  “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.”  The place required the same condition of person as Judas, who had left his place.  That is, he had to be witness of all Judas had seen and heard.  In this way, not only could the order be restored with everyone in his proper place, but also healed by one who was a true and faithful witness of Jesus Christ.

“So they proposed two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus, and Matthias.”  We see Peter setting the criteria for Judas’s successor, and that the other Apostles follow his word.  Peter is clearly exercising the power given him by the Lord to bind and to loose.  This Joseph is said to have later become the bishop of a large town in central Israel named Betaris.  “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.”  Next, they pray.  It would seem that Peter offered the prayer and that the others assented to it with their “Amen”.  “Then they gave lots to them.”  This could have been done with dice or in some similar way.  They do not vote, lest any favoritism they might harbor interfere with the choice of the Holy Spirit.  “And the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was counted with the Eleven Apostles.”  

Various traditions hold that Matthias was celibate throughout his life and that he preached first in Judea and then later in what is now the country of Georgia in the Caucasus region, where he was crucified.  St. Hippolytus of Rome, who lived around the year 200, says that he died of old age in Jerusalem, though he may have had in mind a different man with the same man who was a bishop of Jerusalem.