Meditation: Ephesians 2:19 So then, you are no longer foreigners and strangers. On the contrary, you are fellow-citizens with God’s people and members of God’s family. 20 You have been built on the foundation of the emissaries and the prophets, with the cornerstone being Yeshua the Messiah himself. 21 In union with him the whole building is held together, and it is growing into a holy temple in union with the Lord. 22 Yes, in union with him, you yourselves are being built together into a spiritual dwelling-place for God!
Saint Simon and Saint Jude, Apostles (Feast)
You are fellow citizens with the holy ones. (Ephesians 2:19)
Okay, class. It’s time for a quiz. Take out your pens, and write down everything you know about St. Simon. Then do the same for St. Jude. You can use as many sheets of paper as you need.
This is one quiz you would pass if you were to turn in a nearly blank sheet of paper! All we know for sure is that Simon and Jude were among the Twelve Jesus chose. It’s possible that they brought the gospel to Mesopotamia and Persia, but we don’t know for sure. They might have been martyred while on their missionary journeys, but we really don’t know. What we do know is that they loved the Lord and were willing to lay down their lives for him.
Simon is sometimes called “the Zealot” or “the Cananean” to distinguish him from Simon Peter, but we’re not sure whether this title designates a geographical region or a group of political activists.
On lists in the other Gospels, Jude seems to be called Thaddeus. It was once thought that he was the same person who wrote a short letter that’s now part of the New Testament, but some scholars now doubt that. For reasons unknown to us, Jude has long been venerated as the patron of hopeless or impossible causes. Perhaps that’s because he shares a name with Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus. According to tradition, many people were reluctant to ask his intercession; they would turn to him only as a last resort, when all other prayers seemed to go unanswered.
However he got the title, Jude’s special designation speaks to all of us. Like the first apostles—a motley crew of tax collectors and zealots and tradesmen—we could never hope to become saints if Jesus didn’t call and empower us. We would just be ordinary, everyday people. But thanks to Jesus, we can become so much more!
Most of us can think of a desire close to our hearts that currently seems impossible. Get a firm grip on that desire. Then invite St. Simon and St. Jude to help you lay it at the feet of Jesus. Let them show you that he can do anything.
“Simon and Jude, you were close friends with Jesus. Please intercede with him for this special favor that seems impossible to me.” Amen!
Psalms 19:2 (1) The heavens declare the glory of God,
the dome of the sky speaks the work of his hands.
3 (2) Every day it utters speech,
every night it reveals knowledge.
4 (3) Without speech, without a word,
without their voices being heard,
5 (4) their line goes out through all the earth
and their words to the end of the world.
In them he places a tent for the sun,
Luke 6:12 It was around that time that Yeshua went out to the hill country to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. 13 When day came, he called his talmidim and chose from among them twelve to be known as emissaries:
14 Shim‘on, whom he named Kefa; Andrew, his brother; Ya‘akov; Yochanan; Philip; Bar-Talmai;
15 Mattityahu; T’oma; Ya‘akov Ben-Halfai;
16 Shim‘on, the one called the Zealot; Y’hudah Ben-Ya‘akov; and Y’hudah from K’riot, who turned traitor.
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