They gave lots to them, and the lot fell on Matthias
At the election of the apostle Matthias, Peter did three things. He proposed that they did do what was appropriate according to human judgement: they chose men who had been in the company of Jesus with them all the time of Jesus’ public ministry, from his baptism to the Ascension. By that judgment they proposed two names. Secondly, they turned to God “who knows the hearts of all” and prayed for guidance. Thirdly, they surrendered to God’s guidance by casting lots, and trusting that the one who received the lot was the one God had chosen.
This is a good patten for discernment in our own lives. First, that we do whatever is possible according to our human judgment with all its limitations. Secondly, that we pray for God to guide us. and thirdly, that we surrender to God’s guidance.
The election of the apostle was only the beginning. We believe, as the apostles believed, that he was elected by Jesus, like the other apostles, though indirectly – much in the same way as we believe in our own calls, which were not directly by Jesus. Yet like the others Jesus chose, he appointed Matthias – and us – to go and bear fruit; fruit that lasts. It was not enough to have lived with Jesus all the time, for even Judas had done that, even more intimately. To bear fruit Matthias had to comply with the words that we heard in today’s gospel: to remain in Jesus’ love, by keeping his commandments, just as he remains in the love of his Father by keeping the Father’s commandments. And regardless of the individual vocations, his commandment is basically to love one another as he has loved us.
Matthias did fulfil his Master’s command, and that is why we celebrate him today as a saint, even though hardly anything of his history was captured in the scriptures apart from his election. God who knows the hearts, knows all that he did for him. We only know that, like the majority of the apostles, he too died by shedding his blood in the service of his Master. Through his prayers, may we too answer to our call by loving as Jesus has loved in the peculiar circumstances of our life.
