Saint Matthew's Church
A Roman Catholic Community
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Weekend Mass Schedule
Saturday Vigil at 5:00 PM
Sunday at 8:30 and 10:30 AM
Full Schedule of Services
Weekly Bulletins
Ministry Schedule

Pastor's Weekly Message


The first reading from the Acts of the Apostles describing the history of the early Church tells of the replacement of Judas Iscariot to fill out the Twelve apostles. I have a particular fondness for Matthias who won the lottery and became the replacement twelfth apostle. The feast day of St. Matthias is May 14. That day is also the birthday of my father who would have been 95 this year had he lived. May 14 is also the anniversary date of my ordination forty one years ago. So, you see, I have several reasons to be very fond of St. Matthias. However, beyond my own personal connections to this saint and his feast day, it is worth reflecting on the early disciples need to keep the number of apostles at 12. Why did they think it was critical to replace Judas who had betrayed Jesus?

In the book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, which describes the creation of the earth and the early history of Judaism, Abraham and Sarah are described as the founders of the faith. In fact, to this day, Judaism, Christianity and Islam are called "the Abrahamic faiths". All three faiths call Abraham our "father in the faith". Abraham had two sons, Ismael (by Sarah's Egyptian maidservant Hagar) and Isaac by his wife Sarah when they were very old. Isaac married Rebekah. Isaac and Rebekah had two sons, Esau and Jacob. Jacob stole Isaac's blessing (Gen. 27) and became the heir. Jacob married Leah and Rachel (another fascinating Hebrew bible story of intrigue and deception, see Gen. 29).  Jacob and his wives gave birth to twelve sons (in order of birth), Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph and Benjamin. It was important in Jewish belief that at the end of time the twelve tribes would be reconstituted in the Kingdom of God. The twelve apostles would be the new leaders of the twelve tribes. So, Peter needed twelve apostles in order to judge and lead the twelve tribes on judgment day.

This Jewish belief that twelve rulers would be needed to judge the twelve tribes disappeared quite early in our history. Once Gentiles (non-Jews) became the majority of believers, this tradition no longer was meaningful and so the idea of the Twelve disappeared. What is more fascinating perhaps is that the early church felt compelled to face the reality of Judas' betrayal of Jesus. After all Judas had been chosen by Jesus and had been taught like all the other apostles through the Holy Spirit. So neither the call by Jesus nor the teaching of the Holy Spirit guarantee faithfulness to the mission. The role of the church to this day is to choose, judge and evaluate leaders who will be faithful and will continue the mission of Christ's love in the world. This choice of leaders need not be only priests, deacons, bishops, popes and religious women and men. All of us, by our baptism, are called to be priests, prophets and kings (queens), i.e. ministers for the Lord. Matthias came late to his ministry as one of the Twelve. Whenever we say "yes" to God's call to love one another, that is the right time. All of us are called and gifted as minsters for the Lord just as Matthias was.
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Fr. Chris
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Seasonal Messages

Bishop Emeritus Howard Hubbard's remarks from the Lenten Retreat held in March are now available on the Parish Events Page of our website.


SPRING ENRICHMENT
Our Diocese’s Spring Enrichment 2018 program will be at the College of Saint Rose in Albany from Wednesday, May 16 – Friday, May 18. Throughout these three days there will be just over 100 two hour courses and workshops and 25 hour-long mini-courses for adult faith formation, ministry training, spiritual enrichment, and catechist/youth minister/Catholic school teacher certification. Check the diocese’s website (www.rcda.org/springenrichment) to view the  schedule, brochures and registration form or contact either your parish’s faith formation/religious education program or the Diocesan Catholic School Office (518-453-6602 or spring.enrichment@rcda.org) for more information. Registrations received by the School Office by Friday, April 20 are eligible for the early registration discount, new this year, register online and save $5; otherwise, register in advance by May 9.