St. Matthias’ Day Musings
On this day of the Church year that honors Matthias (chosen by God, through the apostles, to replace Judas Iscariot), Cross+Wise’s Ortho+Box makes some especially nice points. To wit:
When the disciples looked for a replacement for Judas, they did not look for the most polished preacher. They did not look for the friendliest man. They did not conduct interviews to determine whether the potential replacement had a “vision” for the church. No, instead they selected the candidates based solely on whether they had witnessed everything Christ had done.
In the selection of Matthias, we can learn a lot about the Church in those early days. We can see just how squarely the Church is centered on the Word of Christ. And we can take comfort in the knowledge that God will sustain His Church even when we’re not quite sure how that will happen.
Professor Paul Kretzmann, in his “Popular Commentary,” points out that proclaiming the Gospel is merely proclaiming the truth about Christ! The Church sought witnesses to Jesus’ life, death and resurrection because those things are the message of the Gospel. In carrying that message, including all that Christ taught, the Church would be certain to grow as God willed. No gimmicks required: simply the preaching of Christ crucified for all sinners, and the deliverance of His salvation through the sacraments.
The story of Matthias reminds us that God’s message doesn’t need any tweaking. The Gospel saves on its own, through its mere proclamation. It does not require a smooth speaker to tell it (see Moses); it does not require a special program to disseminate it (see Pentecost); it just requires being heard.
As far as we know, Matthias had no special qualifications, except that he could attest to the facts about Jesus–that he lived a perfect life, died a perfect death for our sins, and rose again to overcome death for us. Those facts make the Church, because, as Paul says, those facts are the power of God for the salvation of all who believe.
As we live our lives in Christ’s body, may God give us the wisdom to remain ever mindful of those facts. May He keep our eyes on Christ’s atoning death for us. And may He remind us that substance, not style, is the true measure of the Church’s Gospel proclamation.
As usual, there’s a lot of wisdom to be mined from C+W, but I’d like to think it could be summed up quite pithily:
We need only rely on God’s Substance, and never on our style!
-ghp
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