Thursday – St. Matthias, Apostle

Gospel – John 15:9-17

A Roll of the Dice

Anointing Stone, Church of Holy Sepulchre

We celebrate today the Feast of St. Matthias, Apostle.  And here is what we know about Matthias – he was selected by lot to take Judas’ place as one of the Twelve.  That’s it; that’s all we know.  No background!  No info on his missionary work or even his death, nothing!  All we have is a roll of the dice! 

So was that all just a matter of chance?  Sheer blind luck?  Today’s Gospel tells us that was not the case. Jesus tells His Apostles “It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you”.  Luck had nothing to do with it!  It was divinely inspired.  God was at work as He always is.  We like to think our parents made this conscious decision to have us baptized.  Or we believe that we make this choice to receive the Sacraments.  But in reality, it wasn’t our choice at all.  It was our response!  The choice was God’s!  God chose us as His children out of love.  What we see as a personal choice is really a response to God’s call!

This coming Sunday I will celebrate the 11th anniversary of my ordination as a Permanent Deacon.  (Time flies!)  Way back in my first year of deacon formation, I mistakenly kept thinking about whether this is something I want to do, something I can choose to do. I was so wrong.  It wasn’t about what I wanted.  It was all about discerning whether this is what God wants me to do.  Is this where God is calling me?  And how do I respond?

God calls each and every one of us to follow Him, to follow His commandments, to love one another.  What we have to decide is how to answer God’s call!  What is our response?

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