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.
This post is the first in hopefully a long series of book reviews. You can read more here: My Library
"The Great Gatsby does not proclaim the nobility of the human spirit; it is not politically correct; it does not reveal how to solve the problems of life; it delivers no fashionable or comforting messages. It is just a masterpiece."
-Matthew J. Bruccoli, Preface to The Great Gatsby
Click on image to get this book on Amazon; it's well worth it if you don't own a copy.
I am quite unashamed to admit that this reading of The Great Gatsby was neither my first nor (hopefully) my last. This great novel, if you have never read it, is a work that is worth reading, if simply for the beautiful way in which F. Scott Fitzgerald writes. While this book was written in 1924/25, it is not one of those books that we find impossible to relate to; Fitzgerald allows the reader a window into the past while also creating a story worthy of the time spent reading it.
For me, as I'm sure is the experience of many of my generation and even previous generations, my first experience of this book was in a high school English class in which I probably read spark notes and never even thought about opening the book. Possibly, you could say, this was Fitzgerald's idea, as in 1920 he (quite famously, I might add) stated: "An author ought to write for the youth of his generation, the critics of the next, and the schoolmasters ever afterward." It seems, however, that Fitzgerald crafted something in The Great Gatsby which does not fit this mold; not only do the schoolmasters of today love this book, but young and old alike can pick this book up and enjoy it simply for the masterpiece of storytelling that it is. Proof of the staying power of this book is that here in 2013, almost a century after Fitzgerald's writing took place, a major Hollywood movie will soon be released based on this novel.
What is it, you might ask, that makes The Great Gatsby a masterpiece? What about this work of literature is so fascinating that we are still intently reading it today? You might say that it is simply a powerfully written story which captivates you because of the writing style, use of language, and fascinating characters. While these things are truly enticing aspects of the book, I believe that there is more to it than simply being fun to read. I believe that this story has something to offer to us in that it can teach us about the human condition, about the way that we live and seek after our goals in life, and this is what captivates us the most.
In order to limit the scope of this analysis, I want to focus on two main quotes from The Great Gatsby, or at least set out with those as the framework. To begin the book, we meet our narrator and central figure Nick Carraway who has recently picked up his life and left the Middle-West to venture out East and make a career in selling bonds. Carraway, from whose voice and perspective Fitzgerald writes, has a difficult time adjusting to a new world at first, but when an encounter with a stranger changes his mood, he has this thought: "And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees--just as things grow fast in movies--I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer."
With this, then, the story takes off. Carraway is now settled out East, and he is ready to begin his career selling bonds and his new life in this new place where he now feels at home. For many of us, this experience is something with which we can relate: Carraway is in a new place and experiencing a somewhat new reality, and yet he becomes aware of the beauty that this new thing has to offer and he quickly sees the newness as good instead of simply scary.
This statement from Carraway has long fascinated me; in this most recent reading, however, I was struck by a similar and yet somewhat contradictory statement from another character. Later in the summer, Nick is at his cousin Daisy's home, where she lives with her husband Tom Buchanan. At the house on this particular day is Nick's sort of girlfriend-professional golfer Jordan Baker-and the man whose name lends itself to the title of this book, Jay Gatsby. It is a very hot day outside, and all of the characters are taking turns complaining about the heat. Daisy Buchanan, Nick's cousin, complains that it is too hot, and in her dramatic way wonders what they will do that afternoon, "and the day after that, and the next thirty years?" Jordan, possibly the most intriguing character in the story outside of Gatsby, responds in a quite simple way by stating: "Don't be morbid. Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall."
While these two statements from two different characters may simply be seen as statements about different experiences given at different times, Fitzgerald's inclusion of two characters speaking of life "starting/beginning all over again" was almost certainly not an accident. It seems to me that these characters' desire to have life begin again, or statement that it was already beginning, shows one of the central human conditions, that of rarely being satisfied with one's experience of life at that moment. At another point in the story, we see Gatsby's similar feelings in his "incredulous" response to Nick's statement that you can't repeat the past when he exclaims "Can't repeat the past? Why of course you can!"
For the characters of this story, it seems, there is never a moment which is 'good enough.' Gatsby and Daisy, at times, want to dwell in the past; Nick and Jordan both speak of new beginnings and life starting over; Tom repeatedly commits to being better in the future; Myrtle Wilson, a minor character in terms of appearance but major character in terms of plot development, has a similar experience to Gatsby in dwelling on the past and continually having regret. Whichever the character, the present is not enough, and the hope is simply that the future might be better, quite often meaning that the future would look a lot like the past had.
Fitzgerald, a masterful writer, worked diligently in this novel to capture the human condition of the 1920s, and it seems in his work he has captured the state of persons long beyond that time. In today's world, we can constantly see that people are unsatisfied which often leads to dwelling on the past or dreaming of the future. Fitzgerald sums up this existence, this day-to-day living of a life with which we are not satisfied, when he says in the final sentence of this novel what we "beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."
The lesson of this theme in The Great Gatsby is one that it seems the characters of the novel may have missed, aside from possibly Nick. That theme seems to be that life is not enjoyed or lived well if we simply "beat on" and allow ourselves to be "borne back ceaselessly into the past." Rather, a life lived to the full is one where we don't "lead lives of quiet desperation," as Thoreau asserted that we do, but where we make the most of each moment and love all of the people we have in our lives.
For now, my analysis of this wonderful book will stop there. I may decide to write on another topic this novel caused me to think about, or to speak about the character of Jay Gatsby and the anomaly that he seems to be, or possibly to talk about the movie's interpretation of this masterpiece, but for now this will suffice. I look forward to the movie which will be out this Friday, and for your viewing pleasure I've put the preview for it below.
May our experience of reading a masterpiece of literature like this draw us closer to Truth, to Beauty, and to Goodness. May God bless each of us this day.
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.
Happy Feast of St. Athanasius (that guy --> ). Okay so that's not a real photograph, but it's probably a lot like what he actually looked like. St. Athanasius was born between 296-298 AD (he had 2 years of birthdays; I'm not sure how you celebrate that) and died on May 2, 373 (that one is legit). He was bishop of Alexandria from 328 until his death in 373.
The time when Athanasius lived and ruled as Bishop was a crazy one for the Church. During his lifetime Christianity became legal and continued to grow (although, surprisingly, it grew faster before being legal, but that's another story for another time). With it growing at this rate, something became very important for the early Church--defining its theology. During his lifetime, the specific theology being discussed had a lot to do with who the person of Jesus was-was He God, was He man, was He both? Who created Him (if anyone)? When did He come into existence?
One of the biggest parts of this debate was a controversy known as the Arian controversy, which was started by a guy named Arius (you could've guessed, right?). Arius held to a popular theology in the East at the time: Jesus was the Logos (Word) which out of the will of the Father. Arius, and others like him (including great names like Origen and very important people like Eusebius of Ceasarea) held that the Son came in some way from the Father, believing that the Father was eternal but that there was a time when the Son did not exist.
To put it simply, the debate was this: was Jesus totally God, or somehow a little bit less? Athanasius played a major part in this battle; he was a major player in the Council of Nicea in 325 and a major theological figure for the rest of his life and long after.
If you want to read more about the personality of Athanasius as well as the controversies he faced, there is a good explanation of it at Fr. Robert Barron's Word on Fire Blog here: Athanasius Contra Mundi. That blog is called Athansius Contra Mundi, meaning Athanasius verse the world, because that is the way much of his life went: he was taken out of Alexandria at least 5 times, even having to hide in the desert at one point simply because he refused to budge on truth when so many others disagreed with him.
So why, you might ask, do we need to know all of this about a guy who lived in the 300s in Egypt?
Well, the example of his life is important for us in a world that so often wants us to ignore truth in favor what feels or sounds good at the time. Athanasius faced other bishops, emperors, and people who had a lot of support; he was taken off of his post, he was chased out of his city, and he was constantly attacked for his beliefs. Despite all this pressure, Athanasius refused to budge; he stood firm in the face of truth, teaching with an eloquence and intelligence that led to his teachings becoming the foundation for much of the Church's theology that we still hold today.
Besides standing strong in the face of difficulty, Athanasius is important to us for another reason: he shows us how important it is to know Scripture and to know our faith well. The Arians and others that he fought against knew the faith very well; if you read their writings today, you would have a hard time seeing what is incorrect many times even if you know that they were heretics. If Athanasius had only kind of known the Scripture, and had spoken without intelligence, he would have been silenced and the incorrect ideas of the time might have become even more mainstream.
Today, it is often the same way; we can't simply assume that a basic knowledge of the faith will be enough. We need to study it, to learn it, to be fluent in it, and to speak it with confidence and unwavering trust.
Take the example of St. Athanasius to prayer today: what ways is the Lord calling each of us to grow in our knowledge of the faith? How are giving in to the false teachings of those around us, and how can we do a better job of standing up for truth?
“For the Lord touched all parts of creation, and freed and undeceived them all from every deceit.”
Hi! It’s a pleasure to be writing at jasonjtheobald.com. My name is Will Goggins and I’m Jason’s friend/thorn in his side; I live in Virginia where I am also a youth minister. Jason asked me to guest-post today1 on the feast of St. Joseph the Worker.
St Joseph is the Patron of the Universal Church. What’s really great about St. Joseph is today May 1st is not his only feast day, and in my family on our Saints feast day we get to pick dessert. This is great because my Patron (my middle name)2 is Saint Joseph, and so I get to do this twice.3 As the saying about Joseph goes: “The Saint so nice we feast him twice.” Along with picking dessert, I like to use these two days to remember something specific about Saint Joseph’s life.
March 19th is Saint Joseph’s first feast day, and this feast is to remember in particular the role we know best about Saint Joseph. This main role is the Husband of Mary, the role of Joseph taking Mary and Jesus into his home even though Jesus wasn’t his child, going to Egypt, and walking to Bethlehem4. Even with all those adventures, Saint Joseph still doesn’t have a speaking part in the Bible. As Bl. Pope John Paul II says, though, “even without words, he shows the depth of his faith, his greatness . . . He is great in faith, not because he speaks his own words, but above all because he listens to the words of the Living God.” That’s the model he is to all Christians: take Christ into your home, make him at home in your heart, and then listen to him and do as he asks of you. (Jason wrote a post on that back on that day: St. Joseph Husband of Mary).
But on May 1st, what’s left? You may feel like we've already covered everything there is to cover about Joseph, but not quite. One of my favorite parts of the Gospels is that there are parts of Jesus life that are hidden, where he didn’t have people asking for miracles or disciples following him. He was just hanging out with his family, working with Joseph as his handyman’s apprentice;5 picture Joseph and Jesus working side by side all of those hidden years.
This bonding of Jesus to work is remarkable if you think about it. If you were God 6, would you spend 30 of your 33 years on earth working in a blue-collar job? Christ did. I think He did that to show how all our work is important, and that every thing we do is an opportunity to be with Him and to follow Him. He showed that even our work can be transformed to worship because the ordinary can be transformed to the extraordinary, and today is the celebration of how Joseph points to this great truth.
The name Joseph in Hebrew means, “God will add.” St. Joseph’s example shows God will add to our life in the ways that we are called if we follow Joseph’s example and take Jesus to work with us.
1Kind-of; really I just know his password. 2Saint William was a writer, now that I think about it I should have asked for his intercession more.
3I cannot tell you how badly my sister Mary enjoys this family ritual.
4I left off loosing Jesus in the temple, because let's not ruin the mood.
5A lot of times when the crowd would bring up St. Joseph in the Gospels it was a slight to Christ. In today’s speak it would be like teasing someone “your dad he fixes our plumbing”
