Homily for Tuesday, 28 October 2014– Feast of Sts. Simon and Jude

Tuesday of the 30th week in Ordinary Time

Readings of the day: Ephesians 2:19-22; Psalm 19:2-3, 4-5; Luke 6:12-16

What do we know about Jesus’ Apostles? The Gospels give us many details about some of the Twelve, for example Peter, James, and John, who were with him at most significant events in Jesus’ life. We know of Thomas as the one who doubted Jesus’ resurrection, but then believed. From the beautiful scene in John’s Gospel of Nathaniel (named Bartholomew in the other Gospels), whom Philip calls from under the fig tree to “come and see” Jesus, we know of these two apostles. We know of Matthew the tax collector-turned-apostle. Especially if you are of Scottish ancestry, you may have a devotion to St. Andrew. And of course, for all the wrong reasons it seems, we know of Judas Iscariot, “who became a traitor.”

But what do we know of Simon and Jude, whose feast we celebrate today? It would seem that we know very little about these two apostles.  

In Luke’s Gospel from which we hear today, Simon is called “the Zealot.” Was Simon a member of the Zealots, who are thought by some scholars of our time to have been a political movement during and after Jesus’ time intent on asserting Israel’s independence from Roman rule by force? Or is this a nickname given him in the Gospel simply because Simon was a passionate Apostle of Jesus Christ (although this could describe all twelve Apostles)? We cannot be sure.

We know even less about Jude, or “Judas the son of James,” than about Simon. Did his thought give rise to the New Testament letter that is named after him? Popular devotion makes Jude the patron saint of hopeless causes. Perhaps we could pray to St. Jude to help us with the hopeless cause of knowing who he was…

Despite our inability to know who the Apostles were beyond the little that Scripture gives us, our first reading today gives us some idea not only of the significance of the Apostles, but of who we are as Church. The Letter to the Ephesians says that we, the Church, are “built” together “upon the foundation of the Apostles… with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone.” We are “fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God.”

These two verses from Ephesians say a lot about the Apostolic beginnings of our Church; that the Church, headed by Christ, is “built upon the foundation of the Apostles.” The bishops, with the pope as both head and brother bishop, are an image of this first group of Twelve Apostles. They are successors of the Apostles, and so we pray in our Creed that we are “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.” And we, like the Apostles, are “fellow citizens with the holy ones.”

What dignity God has given us! A few of us may be well known; “big names” in our communities; our workplaces; our parish… But are not most of us more like Simon and Jude? We are, for the most part, lesser known beyond a close circle of loved ones, but together we are “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.” We are “fellow citizens with the holy ones,” those well-known and those not so well-known.