Feast of Saints Simon and Jude

Monday,
October 28, 2019
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. Each member in the group had a unique story to keep. One was a rebel (Simon the Zealot) while another was a conspirator of the Romans (Matthew the tax collector); one was always in the limelight (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 ho-nor Saints Simon and Jude.
Simon is so unknown to us that we are not even sure if he is Simon the Zealot as mentioned in the Gospel or Luke, or Simon the Canaanite as mentioned in the Gospel of Mark. Jude too comes to us similarly veiled with 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.
John the Evangelist wrote: “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 others-oriented he was. He wanted the whole world to know and love Him. From here we can infer the depth of his missionary zeal.
Jude’s missionary zeal was ablaze despite the clouds that still veiled the identity of Jesus at that time. His missionary zeal embarrasses us because although we have behind us a thick layer of faith history assuring us of Jesus’ identity, we are not as excited to spread the faith. 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 well. May 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., J.D., D.M.