[Coffee with the Saints]: Matthias the Apostle

This Saint story is part of the newly re-titled series I am doing called "Coffee with the Saints." Read more here: Coffee with the Saints

Tomorrow is May 14th, which, in the current Roman Calendar, is the feast of St. Matthias. Only a small amount is known about St. Matthias, but what is known is important and worth talking about. 

St. Matthias is mentioned for the first time in the first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, after Jesus' has died, been Resurrected, and has Ascended into heaven, but before Pentecost when the Holy Spirit would come down upon the Apostles. In this time, the Apostles realize (under Peter's leadership) that they need to choose a man to replace Judas Iscariot, and so they nominate two men. It was decided that the two men that they put forward to choose for election had to "have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us" (Acts 1:21-22). They chose one man whose name was "Joseph called Barsab'bas, who was surnamed Justus" and the other was Matthias. The Apostles pray that God would choose, and then they cast lots (seriously, that's how they did-Acts 1:26), and the lot falls upon Matthias, who is then enrolled with the eleven disciples (cf. Acts 1:25-26). 

Other than this story, not much is known factually about the life of Matthias (there are some sources, but is hard to know what is historically accurate since Scripture doesn't include any more about him). What we do know is this: Matthias was chosen to be an apostle, and he became part of the group which traveled out and spread the Gospel to all the nations. We also know that, like almost all of the Apostles, Matthias was martyred for the sake of the Gospel. 

What can we learn from the story of Matthias? 

One thing that we can see is a man who did not expect, most likely, to be chosen as an Apostle; he was one of a larger group of 70, and may have very much liked being part of the big group but not having to make any of the tough decisions. Maybe he knew he was called to be a leader and this was no surprise, or maybe he hated being in charge and this decision made him very sad. While we can't know how he really felt about this, we can know this: Matthias was chosen by casting lots, and yet he didn't doubt ("I swear I thought it landed on him; let's cast again"), but rather he simply went out, following this call, and helped to spread the Gospel to all nations while giving his life as a martyr. 

If we are ever thrust into a situation where we unexpectedly have to lead, or we are ever brought in to replace someone who messed up big time, we can look to Matthias for his intercession and his help. Matthias was brought into leadership under the unfortunate circumstances of Judas' betrayal of Jesus and his suicide, but he did not use the tough situation as an excuse to be ineffective in his ministry. Let us all follow that example and never see a situation as too difficult, but rather let the Lord work in our lives in whatever way He wants to. 

St. Matthias the Apostle, PRAY FOR US! 

[Coffee with the Saints]: Saints Philip and James

This post is a part of a new saint project I am doing. You can read more about that here: Coffee with the Saints

Although this post is a few days late, I want to take some time here to reflect on St. Philip and St. James, whose feast days we celebrated together this past Friday, May 3rd. 

St. Philip: We hear about his calling to be a follower of Jesus in the Gospel of John, right after Jesus' baptism by John. In this story, it says that he meets Philip as he was about to depart for Galilee, asks Philip to follow Him, and we know that he does because he immediately goes and calls Nathaniel (cf. John 1:43-46). It says there that Philip was from Bethsaida (as were Andrew and Peter). Other stories about Philip's life can also be found in John's Gospel: one is in John Chapter 6, one in John Chapter 12, and another in John Chapter 14. 

In Chapter 6 we see Jesus question Philip about how to feed all of the people; Philip answers without knowledge of what Jesus was going to do here, but that seems to be the point: Jesus was teaching them, and needed them to start thinking about how difficult the task of feeding all of these people would be before He showed them how He was going to do it. In Chapter 12, some Greek people come to him hoping to see Jesus. From this, and from his Greek name, it is inferred that Philip probably spoke Greek, and thus he was able to help introduce another part of the world to the Apostles and to Jesus. Finally, in Chapter 14, Philip asks Jesus during His Last Supper farewell discourse to show them the Father; this gives Jesus a way to teach them about His mission by Philip having a mind which questioned and sought truth from Jesus. 

Other than these stories, not a lot is known of Philip from Scripture; he is mentioned much more often in writings outside of the New Testament, and since I have no knowledge of those and for the most part they are usually unreliable, we will stop here with the story of Philip. 

St. James (the Less/the Just): James is a name which appears a few times in the Gospels, and since I am not in any way a Scripture scholar I won't spend much time here distinguishing the various people called James in the New Testament and how we know who they are. I will talk a bit about the person, but I will not attempt to explain how I know which one he is, but rather trust Catholic tradition which has handed down stories and traditions about this apostle. 

St. James is definitely one of the apostles, but we hear a lot more from him after Christ's death and resurrection. Tradition (very reliable tradition) holds that he was the first Bishop of Jerusalem after the apostles went out following Pentecost to spread the Gospel. This seems to hold true if one looks at the story of the Council of Jerusalem from Acts 15; the apostles are discussing the question of circumcision, or if Gentiles had to first become Jews to become Christians. The discussion happens, and Peter speaks, putting an end to debate; when the group is silent after Peter, the council ends with James speaking up and summarizing what they have now agreed upon. James was able to do this, it would seem, because he is the Bishop in the place where the council is taking place; Peter is the Pope, but James is the one hosting, and thus concluding, this council. 

Finally, one of the main ways we know of St. James is through the epistle (letter) which bears his name. This epistle, which is quite short and worth reading, was disliked by Martin Luther mainly because of its practical exhortation to action. In a famous way, James 2:14 calls faith without works 'dead', a teaching very important for the Church and difficult for Luther to reconcile, which led him to call the epistle of James straw and attempt to remove it from the Canon. For this reason, it would be good for Catholics to read this epistle, knowing that it is important to a Catholic understanding of the way that our faith is lived out in action. 

In summary, these two saints are very important because they were apostles, and thus were close to Jesus and were vital to the spreading of the faith in the early Church. Like all of the apostles, they were given the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and through that Spirit went out and proclaimed Christ to all peoples. Today, we must be very thankful for the apostles, and with this feast particularly thankful for these two saints and martyrs, for their dedicated witness to the faith the point of death, since without these men the faith would not have continued and spread throughout the world. 

Saints Philip and James, PRAY FOR US!