Nisi Dominus aedificaverit domum, in vanum laborant qui aedificaverunt eam - "Unless the Lord built the house, they worked in vain who built it" Ps. 127

Thursday, May 20, 2021

The Church's First Decision and The First Successor to the Apostles: St. Mathias

 Not everyone, it would seem, is pleased with the current Roman Pontiff.  If that hadn't been clear to me already, it would certainly be apparent in many of the comments some of my recent posts (this one and this one, for instance) have received in various online venues.  Who would have thought it?


     Happily, I'm not writing today to discuss the worthiness (or lack thereof) of Pope Francis for his current job.  Instead we're looking at St. Mathias, whose feast we are celebrating. I mention the current Pope because our discussion of St. Mathias will necessarily involve the papal office, if not the papal personality.

    St. Mathias was the thirteenth Apostle, chosen to replace Judas Iscariot after Judas betrayed the Lord then took his own life. It's interesting that our scriptural sources actually tell us very little about St. Mathias himself.  The only place he is mentioned by name is the passage is the Acts of the Apostles that describes his election:

In those days Peter stood up among the brethren (the company of persons was in all about a hundred and twenty), and said . . .


[click HERE to continue reading this post on Spes in Domino] 

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