Friday, May 14, 2021

 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.