Vigils Reading – Chair of St Peter

THE CHAIR OF ST PETER

By St John Henry Newman

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The very first act of the Apostles after Christ was gone out of their sight,

was the ordination of Matthias in the place of the traitor Judas. That ordination

is related very minutely. Every particular of it is full of instruction; but at

present I wish to draw attention to one circumstance more especially: namely,

the time when it occurred. It was contrived (if one may say so) exactly to fall

within the very short interval which elapsed between the departure of our Lord,

and the arrival of the Comforter in His place: on that ‘little while,’ during which

the Church was comparatively left alone in the world. Then it was that St Peter

rose and declared with authority, that the time was come for supplying the

vacancy which Judas had made. ‘One,’ said he, ‘must be ordained;’ and without

delay they proceeded to the ordination. Of course, St Peter must have had from

our Lord express authority for this step. Otherwise it would seem most natural

to defer a transaction so important until the unerring Guide, the Holy Spirit,

should have come among them, as they knew he would in a few days.

On the other hand, since the Apostles were eminently Apostles of our

Incarnate Lord, since their very being, as Apostles, depended entirely on their

personal mission from him…one should naturally have expected that he himself

before his departure would have supplied the vacancy by personal designation.

But we see it was not his pleasure to do so. As the Apostles afterwards brought

on the ordination sooner, so he had deferred it longer than might have been

expected. Both ways it should seem as if there were a purpose of bringing the

event within those ten days, during which, as I said, the church was left to

herself; left to exercise her faith and hope, much as Christians are left now,

without any miraculous aid or extraordinary illumination from above. Then, at

that moment of the New Testament history in which the circumstances of

believers corresponded most nearly to what they have been since miracles and

inspiration ceased, — just at that time it pleased our Lord that afresh Apostle

should be consecrated, with authority and commission as ample as the former

enjoyed. In a word, it was his will that the eleven Disciples alone, not himself

personally, should name the successor of Judas; and that they chose the right

person, he gave testimony very soon after, by sending his Holy Spirit on St

Matthias, as richly as on St John, St James, or St Peter.