When Jesus began his public life, he chose 12 men as his followers and co-workers. It was to these men that he gave awesome responsibility in starting and building up the community of faith which would later be called the Church. Judas was one of the twelve. Very soon after our Lord’s return to his Heavenly Father, the apostles began to get to work and realized that an office had been vacated and that this office should be filled. The apostles gathered and prayed that the Holy Spirit would guide them and then chose Matthias to be the replacement for Judas. Today, May 14th, is his feast day.

In reading this introduction in Acts, you should not pass over it too quickly. It is a clear indication that the apostles clearly saw that they had to form some limited kind of organization. Remember, they would later choose and ordain seven deacons to handle social ministry, but the apostle had to be one of the key witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus and that was the condition for Matthias being elected to be an apostle.

So we are dealing with internal developments within the community in just a few days or maybe a few weeks. We also see that the Church is beginning to form itself into an entity that will most effectively carry forth the message of Jesus Christ, a message that is to be carried forth across the entire world until the end of time. Now that is a job description!

St. Matthias pray for us.

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