Feast of Saint Matthias, Apostle

Today's Mass Readings

During this Easter season, we have been following the life of the early church in the Acts of the Apostles. Today we have an opportunity to consider how the church dealt with Judas’ absence among the apostles after he betrayed Jesus, handing him over to be arrested and put to death. One important point we can take from this first reading is that Jesus’ disciples encompassed far more than his apostles. In other words, St. Matthias was a disciple first before becoming an apostle. He had followed Jesus along with other disciples, not because he had an important role, but because he believed in Jesus. The other important point we can take from this passage is that God chose Matthias to become an apostle. Again, it was not Matthias who volunteered himself for this role. The apostles did not vote on Judas’ replacement. Rather, they prayed and then left the decision up to God, and God chose Matthias to serve in this position as apostle.

The gospel passage paired with this reading raises several interesting questions. One of these is the line, “It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you” (Jn. 15:16). This is true in the context of the passage because Jesus is addressing his apostles who surround him at the Passover dinner. But in many ways, this line also applies to all of us.

American society has taught us that life is basically about our own individual, personal choices. We choose all sorts of things, whether food or schools or clothes or even religion. And this conception of “choice” often leads us to think that we are actually in charge of our lives, in other words, that we have the ultimate control of our life destination.

Indeed, we do have a great amount of control over our lives. God has granted us free will that we might make decisions that lead us to him. But (thank God!), God does not stop there. God chooses us, even when we don’t choose him. He seeks us out even when we run from him. He loves us, even when we don’t love him in all of our actions.

Those of us who find ourselves in some sort of position of faith might like to think that we are here because of our own choices, especially because we have chosen Christ. And while that is true to some extent, we are also here because God has chosen us. He chose us to become human beings, and he has loved us from the very beginning of our existence. Moreover, if we look back in our lives, we will probably see that there have been many grace-filled moments that we could not have anticipated; there are things for which we just simply cannot take all the credit. To some extent, we all have a story of how God chose us.

The task of being chosen is to remain in Jesus without becoming complacent. We must love one another. Just as it was for Matthias, being chosen is not so much a privilege as a responsibility. We must be disciples who are empowered by Jesus’ choice for us. It is because he first loved us that we can now love one another and live in God’s love.

Today, take some time to look back on your life with an eye to having been chosen by God in a unique way. Praise God for his love for you, and then let the knowledge of his grace in your life feed your desire to love others.

- Maria Morrow