RBWords

   The  process of picking a suitable candidate to be a bishop in the church has changed considerably from the time of Jesus and the apostles!  Jesus handpicked the first twelve, but when the Twelve wanted to be sure there would still be twelve, they agreed on some criteria and on two candidates that met the criteria and then drew lots! The imagination is tempted by the thought of Pope Francis (or any other pope in modern times) looking at the three names which are usually suggested to him and then picking up dice or drawing a slip of paper from a jar!

     The desire to keep the original group at the level of twelve seems to have sprung from the belief in the first group of disciples that they constituted a kind of "new Israel" with its former twelve tribes.  All we know about Matthias is that he met the criteria and was chosen by lot.  After that he disappears as an individual in the pages of scripture.  [Notwithstanding any pious legends.]

     Now there are more than three thousand bishops in the church!  Some are better than others.  There are saints and scoundrels in their midst.  Their first and most important task is to bear witness to the Lord's resurrection, just like the first twelve.  Some of them do so even now at the cost of their lives, like Archbishop  Romero in El Salvador, who will be soon "beatified" by Pope Francis.  Others just do their job like the rest of us and try to be faithful.  Some triumph and some fail spectacularly.  But the apostolic succession continues in the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church, no matter how we choose them!  AMEN