Mass was offered this morning for the repose of the soul of Clair Turnbull (+), may she rest in the peace of the risen Christ.
Today, the Church remembers the Apostle Saint Matthias, last of the Twelve. Most people know that there was a rotten Apostle called Judas who most wretchedly betrayed Christ, and then proceeded to hang himself in shame. What is not usually known is that the other eleven, led by the Apostle Saint Peter, felt an urgent need to make up the number Twelve, the traditional number of the of ancient Israel, whom Christ had come to renew and rebuild.
This was what the mission of Christ was all about. The story is this: long ago, when the people had been led out of Egypt and into the promised land, where they had eventually put down deep roots. At the beginning they had been ruled by God in a theocracy, administered initially, and in a vicarious fashion, by the prophet Moses and then by his successor Joshua. There followed the period of the Judges, including the strong figures of Deborah and Samson, and the great prophet-judge Samuel. And then the people decided that they would like to end the theocracy and be like the other nations surrounding them. They wanted a king. Thus began the anointed royal lines of the king Saul of Benjamin, and then the king David of Judah. The story of the rise and decline of the kings of Israel is a story of increasing apostasy from the original rule of God in the direction of a secular kingdom. The story of the prophets is one of the repeated call to the return to the rule of God, with the promise of a messianic figure, who would accomplish this very thing.
The idea, to my mind, was a return to the rule of God, via a vicarious line of Judges. Let's call them Apostles, and their successors bishops. For Christ said at one point:
"Hereupon Peter took occasion to say, 'And what of us who have forsaken all, and followed thee; what is left for us?' Jesus said to them, 'I promise you, in the new birth, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of his glory, you also shall sit there on twelve thrones, you who have followed me, and shall be judges over the twelve tribes of Israel. And every man that has forsaken home, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for my name’s sake, shall receive his reward a hundredfold, and obtain everlasting life.'" - Gospel of S. Matthew 19: 27-29
The number of the Twelve had to be re-established, and in the circumstances of the Ascension of Christ, the choice of the Twelfth Apostle had to be conducted by the others. And Saint Luke gives us the details of this in our first reading today. This is part of the Peter's speech on the occasion:
"There are men who have walked in our company all through the time when the Lord Jesus came and went among us, from the time when John used to baptise to the day when He, Jesus, was taken from us. One of these ought to be added to our number as a witness of his resurrection. So they named two of them, Joseph called Barsabas, who had been given the fresh name of Justus, and Matthias. And they offered this prayer, 'Lord, who knowest the hearts of all men, shew us which of these two thou hast chosen to take his place in this work of apostleship, from which Judas has fallen away, and gone to the place which belonged to him.' They gave them lots; and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he took rank with the eleven apostles." - Acts of the Apostles, 1: 21-26
We do not know much of the fate of Saint Matthias, whom Christian tradition recognises as a martyr. There is a narrative of his ministry in Judaea and then Ethiopia, in a land of cannibals, and another of his being stoned in Judaea and then beheaded there. There is also some confusion between him and the Apostle Saint Matthew and then again with a bishop of Jerusalem who was also called Matthias (more here).
The early Church held the Twelve in great veneration. And so do we.
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