The Healing Journey

July 21, 2025

Life is full of disappointments, and if we sat around cataloging every time we were disappointed, we wouldn’t want to face another day. Many of us raise our eyes to heaven, shake our heads, and ask, “Why, God, why? Why did this happen? Why didn’t you prevent this?” Disappointment is a fact of life that we can’t escape, and it has always been that way, whether it involves the loss of someone we love, a broken relationship or losing a job.

A scripture reading we hear every May 14 on the feast of St. Matthias comes from the Acts of the Apostles. Although he wasn’t one of the original apostles, Matthias got the job after they voted to replace Judas.

St. Luke recorded: “So they proposed two, Joseph called Barsabbas —who was also known as Justus — and Matthias. Then, they prayed, ‘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.’ Then, they gave lots to them, and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was counted with the apostles.”

Joseph Barsabbas didn’t get the job. But he got a feast day — July 20. He was eclipsed by someone else’s success. Did he go home and brood? Did he complain to his wife and family that he was better qualified than Matthias? Did he walk away from Christ like so many others and return to his Jewish faith? Was he angry and resentful?

Can any disappointment compare with not being named one of the Twelve Apostles? That’s the kind of disappointment none of us could survive … without Jesus. The same was true of Joseph Barsabbas, now known as Saint Joseph Barsabbas, who stands as an example for all of us who’ve suffered disappointments in life. He didn’t let his disappointment defeat him.

St. John Chrysostom writes, “The other candidate (Joseph) was not annoyed, for the apostolic writers would not have concealed failings of their own, seeing they have told of the very chief apostles, that on other occasions had indignation, and not only once, but again and again.”

Joseph was one of the disciples who followed Christ from his baptism in the Jordan to his Ascension. He served Christ faithfully until the end. He became a bishop, and tradition says he was martyred at Eleutheropolis, a city in Judea, southwest of Jerusalem.

During the first century, it was a village called Betaris, which Roman forces under Emperor Vespasian attacked in 68 A.D. to quell Jewish rebels. Among the 10,000 who were killed was Joseph Barsabbas, who refused to renounce his Christian faith. There’s a relic of him in the chapel at the University of Notre Dame.

In our success-obsessed culture, we typically consider the guy who didn’t get the job as unworthy. God, however, doesn’t have a corporate mentality. With God, worldly titles and honors count for nothing. He sees the entire picture, or more accurately, the eternal picture. And here’s a secret: We find Jesus in our greatest disappointments.

Even though he hasn’t been designated the patron saint of a particular cause, Joseph Barsabbas should be the patron saint of the disappointed. St. Joseph Barsabbas, walk with us and help us see God’s presence even in our disappointments.
©J Pisani

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