Acts 1: 15-17, 20a, 20c-26; 1 John 4: 11-16; John 7: 11b-19
Today we celebrate the Seventh Sunday of Easter. Well . . . in New Jersey and nine other states we celebrate the Seventh Sunday of Easter. The rest of the country today celebrates what we did last Thursday, the Ascension of the Lord. But for us and those nine other states, today is the Sunday after the Ascension and the Sunday before Pentecost. And so, we find ourselves experiencing what the Apostles must have two thousand years ago: a period of completion and a period of transition.
It’s a period of completion. For the Apostles, the forty days that the risen Jesus appeared to them and many others in his resurrection body, during which he explained the meaning of his coming to earth, his dying and rising again, commissioned them to establish his Church and prepared them for the coming of the Holy Spirit came to an end. And for us too, the season of Easter, our celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus, also comes to an end.
And for us, like the Apostles, this is a time to transition, to shift our focus – from what our Lord has done for us through his passion, death and resurrection, to now, what we are called, empowered and commissioned to do through the Holy Spirit – to LIVE the Good News and to SPREAD the Good News.
And in our First Reading today from the Acts of the Apostles, we hear of the Apostles first steps to do just that. Jesus had chosen twelve Apostles - twelve to represent, in part, the twelve tribes of Israel. Twelve was a symbolic number in Jewish culture, one that represented authority, perfection and completeness. But after Judas betrayed Jesus, his absence created a lack that Peter was determined to fill. One person had to be added to restore, not only the sense of completion to what Jesus established, but to restore fullness to the mission.
The community of believers then set the criteria. This person had to be someone who was a faithful follower from beginning to end – from when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist through to his Ascension. In such a position of leadership, this person had to be a reliable source for passing along the Good News. So, an intimate knowledge of the person and ministry of Jesus was essential. And so, they identified two worthy candidates: One was named Judas Barsabbas, also known as Justus, and the other was Matthias. If we read between the lines of all four gospels, they were two unnamed nobodies, part of the seventy emissaries that Jesus sent out two by two to every city and place he was about to go. Justus and Matthias had accompanied Jesus and the Apostles faithfully over the dusty roads that brought them to the towns, villages and cities of Galilee and Judea. For three years, these two men had been there through it all, heard it all, seen it all – the parables, the miracles, the adulation of the crowds, the criticism and rejection of the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Priests and the Scribes - but all from behind the scene.
We’re told that the assembly prayed over these two, then, they cast lots, the equivalent of drawing straws, rolling the dice, or tossing a coin. And Matthias won and took his place among the Apostles. Can you imagine leaving such a monumental decision as that one to chance? But for the Apostles, to cast lots wasn't just a way to let God reach down from heaven and make the decision for them. It meant trusting that no matter what decision was made, God will lead it to good.
Do you know what happened to Matthias after the moment when he is chosen to take Judas' place? Neither do I. Neither does anyone. Do you know how many times Matthias' name is mentioned in the Bible? Three. All three are in this story. There's no further mention of him. After all of that, the formerly unknown Matthias takes the place of the betrayer, and then we don't hear anything else about him. Tradition has it that Matthias preached the gospel to the Ethiopians. Another tradition has it that he was stoned in Jerusalem. Others say he made it to the region of present-day Georgia (the country not the state). But the bottom line is that we don't know. We don’t know what happened to the man whom the Holy Spirit led to be chosen to reconstitute the Twelve. Yes, Matthias was chosen and sent . . . but it seems, in his case, sent into relative obscurity.
But although we hear more about Apostles like Peter, Andrew, James and John in the gospels and know more about what happened to them after the gospels, even though more people pray to them as their patron saints and more Catholic churches are named for them, the Apostle Matthias should be remembered and honored by each one of us. Why? Because he teaches us what it means to be faithful. To be faithful means following Jesus through thick and thin, never asking for recognition. It means taking the worst setback imaginable and trusting that God will somehow get you through it. It means believing that your decisions aren't as important as God's love for you - that no matter what you choose, God still chooses good for you and for this world. It means laboring for a lifetime for the sake of the gospel and not worrying whether anyone will notice. THAT’S faithfulness.
Who was Matthias? He is each of us. He is all of us. He is the innumerable saints who follow Jesus wherever Jesus leads, trusting that God will use them in ways that transcend their understanding or imagination. Because we too have been given the truth; we too have won the Apostleship Lottery; we too have been sent. Maybe not to Jerusalem, or Macedonia, or Damascus – but certainly to Succasunna and Ledgewood, Kenvil and Landing, Port Morris and Lower Berkshire Valley; to places as near as the soup kitchen in Dover, and as far away as Dunlow, West Virginia and Kenya, Africa; and to the nameless and faceless who are in need of our prayer and in need of our charity.
Most Christians down through the life of the Church have been a lot more like Matthias than they have been like Peter or Paul. Yes, we are all Matthias. As Mother Teresa said, “Not all of us can do great things for God. But each of us can do small things with great love.” We have all had our names called, our number come up in God’s grand mission and ministry lottery. God has chosen us. God has blessed us. God has taught us the truth. God fills us with the Holy Spirit and sends us out into the world so that all the world will know that He is love.
