Succession Planning and St. Matthias

Succession planning is always important.

Sometimes you follow a person who was a great success. Sometimes you follow someone who went down in failure.

Usually, it is a little of both.

The remaining apostles allowed for the human and divine elements in this plan. They implemented criteria for leadership and found the right candidates. Then they asked God to direct the decision between the logical and spiritual choices.

That balance is always a good idea:

1. Direction from God which is more than a fail-safe and less than an abdication of our responsibility.
2. Here is the passage for the Feast Day of St. Matthias the Apostle:
   
   Acts 1:15-26
   In those days Peter stood up among the believers (together the crowd numbered about one hundred twenty persons) and said,
   
   "Friends, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit through David foretold concerning Judas, who became a guide for those who arrested Jesus-- for he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry."
   
   (Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness; and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out. This became known to all the residents of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their language Hakeldama, that is, Field of Blood.)
   
   "For it is written in the book of Psalms, 'Let his homestead become desolate, and let there be no one to live in it' and 'Let another take his position of overseer.' So one of the men who 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-- one of these must become a witness with us to his resurrection."
   
   So they proposed two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus, and Matthias.
   
   Then they prayed and said, "Lord, you know everyone's heart. Show us which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place."
   
   And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias; and he was added to the eleven apostles.
   
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Curious note - To avoid Lent, his feast day was moved in the Roman Catholic family of Christianity, to May. The Anglican tradition still celebrates February 24.

Another Note: From

"Saint Matthias was present with the other Apostles at Pentecost. Aside from this, little is known of the rest of Saint Matthias' life. According to one tradition, he preached for a time in Jerusalem and eventually he was stoned and beheaded. (He is often portrayed holding an axe, the instrument of his death.) Another tradition claims he preached the Gospel to the barbarians and cannibals in the interior of Ethiopia and was crucified." - https://saintmatthias.org/our-patron-saint-matthias

He is is the patron of carpenters, tailors, those with smallpox.