BUILT ON A SOLID FOUNDATION
Only God can create His divine life in human beings, and
God wills to do so for all of us.
In the first reading
for today, we hear that we are "built upon the foundation of the
Apostles" (Eph 2:20). An "apostle" means "someone who is
sent". The Apostles were people chosen by Jesus before His death and
resurrection. St. Paul
wrote to the Ephesians: "You are no longer strangers and sojourners, but
you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of
God" (Eph 2:19).
On this feast of the
Apostles Simon and Jude, the selection from Luke's Gospel presents us with a
list of names of the Twelve. They who are called! What is God's call for you
and me in our life today? When Jesus embarked on His mission He chose these men
to be friends and apostles. In the choice of the twelve, we see a
characteristic feature of God's work: Jesus chose very ordinary people. He
wanted ordinary people who could take an assignment and do it extraordinarily
well. He chooses these men, not for what they were, but for what they would be
capable of becoming under His direction and love. When Jesus calls us to serve,
we must not turn away from the challenge to serve because we think that we have
little or nothing to offer. Jesus takes what ordinary people, like us, can
offer and uses it for greater things. Is there anything that is holding you
back from giving of yourself?
We don't know anything
about Simon other than the fact that his name appears in all four lists of the
Apostles and he was called "the Cananean" or "the Zealot".
Jude is also named in the four lists as Thaddeus or Judas, son of James.
Western tradition has it that Simon preached in Egypt,
Jude in Mesopotamia, and then the two joined together in Persia where
they were martyred. The legend, which we find in the breviary, states that
"Together, in those far-reaching countries, by their teaching and their
miracles, they spread the faith. Finally, by a glorious martyrdom they paid
together their testimony of honor to the Most Holy Name of Jesus."
As in the case of all
the Apostles, except for Peter, James and John, we are faced with people who
are really unknown and we are struck by the fact that their holiness is simply
taken to be a gift of Christ. Jesus chose some unlikely people: a former
Zealot, a former tax collector, a fisherman, two "sons of thunder"
and a man named Judas Iscariot. It is a reminder that we cannot receive too
often. Holiness does not depend on human merit, culture, personality, effort or
achievement. It is entirely God's gift and grace. God needs no Zealots to bring
about the Kingdom by force.
Jude is known as the
saint of impossible cases. Only God can create His divine life in human beings,
and God wills to do so for all of us. We hear in our Responsorial Psalm:
"Through all the earth their voice resounds and to the ends of the world,
their message" (Ps 119:4). The challenge for us on this feast day is to
renew our own commitment to the mission we accepted on the day of our baptism
and add our names to any of the lists of Apostles we find in the New Testament.