Saturday, October 22, 2011

10/28/2011 – homily for the Feast of Jude and Simon, Apostles – Luke 6:12-16


       As we celebrate the feast of St Jude and St Simon today, two of Jesus’ apostles, we can reflect upon how much we really don’t know about most of these men who were called to be apostles.  Jude is mentioned in the list of apostles in the Gospel of Luke and in Acts, but he is not mentioned elsewhere, and we know no other facts about him from Scripture.  Scripture tells us that Simon was a Zealot, a group in ancient Israel that was very nationalistic, a group that hoped that the Messiah would come to liberate them from all foreign powers, to bring them political glory and military power.  Since the early Church, Simon and Jude have been associated with one another, and Tradition tells us that they brought the Gospel to the people of Persia and died as martyrs for the faith.
         No, we don't know about many of the apostles, be we do know that the faith we have now in our modern world was passed down by them, that they suffered and sacrificed in order to spread God’s word throughout the world.  As we hear in the Gospel of the 12 apostles whom Jesus called by name, we know that they were not the richest, not the most intelligent, not from the best families in society, but rather men with great flaws such as tax collectors and zealots and men who were so fiery that they were called “the sons of thunder.”  In the midst of all of our flaws and weaknesses, the Lord calls us as his followers, to live out our faith in the reality of our lives.  May we all hear that call. 

No comments:

Post a Comment