CUVÂNTUL ACUM PE CITITURILE DE MASĂ
pentru 14 mai 2014
Miercurea celei de-a patra săptămâni a Paștelui
Sărbătoarea Sfântului Matia, apostol
Textele liturgice aici
Sfântul Matia, de Peter Paul Rubens (1577 - 1640)
I întreabă deseori necatolicii care doresc să dezbată autoritatea Bisericii: „De ce au trebuit apostolii să ocupe postul vacant lăsat de Iuda Iscariotean după moartea sa? Care este marea afacere? Sfântul Luca consemnează în Faptele Apostolilor că, ca primă comunitate adunată la Ierusalim, „era un grup de aproximativ o sută douăzeci de persoane într-un singur loc”. [1]cf. Fapte 1: 15 Așadar, au existat o mulțime de credincioși la îndemână. De ce, atunci, trebuia să fie ocupat biroul lui Iuda? ”
As we read in today’s first reading, St. Peter quotes the Scriptures:
May another take his office. Therefore, it is necessary that one of the men who accompanied us the whole time the Lord Jesus came and went among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day on which he was taken up from us, become with us a witness to his resurrection.
Zoom several decades ahead, and one reads in St. John’s vision of the New Jerusalem that there are indeed twelve apostles:
Zidul orașului avea ca temelie douăsprezece șiruri de pietre, pe care erau înscrise cele douăsprezece nume ale celor doisprezece apostoli ai Mielului. (Apocalipsa 21:14)
Certainly, Judas the betrayer was not one of them. Matthias became the twelfth stone.
And he was not to be just another observer, a mere witness among many; he became part of the very foundation of the Church, taking on the competenţelor of the office established by Christ Himself: the authority to forgive sins, bind and loose, administer the Sacraments, transmit the “deposit of faith,” [2]—which is why the Apostles chose someone who had been with Jesus from the beginning until His resurrection and continue himself, through the “laying on of hands,” the transmission of apostolic authority. And against the argument that apostolic succession is somehow a man-made tradition, St. Peter confirms that it is the Lord building His Church, choosing His living stones:
You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this apostolic ministry from which Judas turned away to go to his own place.
We don’t know a great deal about St. Matthias. But no doubt he felt the words of today’s Psalm acutely under the weight of his newly appointed office:
He raises up the lowly from the dust; from the dunghill he lifts up the poor to seat them with princes, with the princes of his own people.
Christ builds His Church on weakness so He can raise her in strength.
The implications of apostolic succession, then, are not little. For one, it implies that the Church is not just some homogenous spiritual blob, but a structured body with a leadership. And that implies, therefore, that you and I are to humbly submit to that teaching authority (what we call “the Magisterium”) and pray for those who must carry both the honor and cross of this duty. As Jesus said in today’s Gospel:
Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love…
We know what those commandments are tocmai because it is preserved by the Holy Spirit prin apostolic succession. Where the successors are in communion with “Peter”, the Pope—there is the Church.
Ascultă-i pe conducătorii tăi și amintește-te de ei, pentru că ei te veghează asupra ta și vor trebui să dea socoteală, pentru a-și putea îndeplini sarcina cu bucurie și nu cu întristare, pentru că asta nu ți-ar fi de niciun avantaj. (Evrei 13:17)
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