Feast of Saints

Simon and Jude
Friday, October 28, 2016
Simon and Jude,
Apostles 1st Reading:
Eph 2:19-22
Gospel: Lk 6:12-16

Jesus went out into the hills to pray, spending the whole night in prayer with God. When day came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them whom he called apostles: Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew, James and John; Philip and Bartholomew; Matthew and Thomas; James son of Alpheus and Simon called the Zealot; Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who would be the traitor.

D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the
Assimilated Life
Experience)

On the Feast of Saints Simon and Jude today, we read Luke’s account of Jesus’ selection of the twelve apostles. The group was highly polarized. One member was a revolutionary (Simon the Zealot) while another was a conspirator of the Romans (Matthew the tax collector); one was an attention seeker (Peter) while two others were virtual unknowns (Simon and Jude). Today’s liturgical feast highlights the unknown spectrum of this apostolic group as it invites us to honor Saints Simon and Jude.

Simon is so unknown to us that we are not even sure about his real name. Luke calls him “Simon the Zealot,” while Matthew and Mark call him “Simon the Canaanite.” Jude too comes to us similarly veiled in the shadow of anonymity. Luke calls him “Jude the brother of James,” while Matthew calls him “Thaddeus.” With the scanty biblical information about Saints Simon and Jude, we can only maximize the few statements attributed to them by the Gospels. We find only one passage (from John’s Gospel) about a certain Jude but none about Simon. So let us just limit today’s Gospel reflection on St. Jude.

“Judas (not Judas Iscariot, but the other disciple with that name) said to him, “Lord, why are you going to reveal yourself only to us and not to them?” (John 14: 22). If this can be attributed to Jude this passage gives us an idea of how altruistic he was. He was uneasy about making exclusive the privilege of knowing about the Messiah. His missionary zeal embarrasses us because although we have behind us a thick layer of faith history assuring us of Jesus’ identity as Messiah, we are not as excited to spread the faith to others. Living the faith is enough to turn us into constructive preachers because of witnessing’s inherent power to impart the faith. This we are not even doing very well. We even drive others away from the Church by our scandalous lives. May St. Jude’s missionary zeal challenge us to share the faith at least at the level of witnessing by living our faith concretely! – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM, MMExM, MAPM, REB. Email: [email protected].
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