Feast of St. Matthias, apostle
(Acts
1:15-17.20-26; John 15:9-17)
To hear
evolutionists talk about development, one will conclude that everything happens
by chance. Yes, they admit some natural
laws that matters must follow. Still given
all the possibilities, they assert that the end product (however so much there
is an end), is determined by chance. With
this conclusion they are refuted by Scripture.
In today’s
gospel Jesus tells his disciples that they have not chosen him. Rather, he has chosen them. The gospel narratives relate as much. There is the “call of Matthew” and the “call
of Peter and Andrew,” etc. Today’s reading
from Acts shows how Matthias was called to replace Judas, the traitor. The people select two worthy men and pray for
the Lord’s guidance. Then they cast lots. Is this not chance? we might ask. Evidently the disciples did not think so or
they would not have prayed.
We too have
been chosen. Although it may seem that
we are Catholic Christians by chance, God has always wanted us to be so. Then it is not by chance that we were
baptized into a Catholic family or that we met someone who convinced us of the
rightness of Catholicism. Christ has
chosen us to follow him – to love as he loved and to have eternal life.
