Friday in the 30th Week of Ordinary Time, October 28, 2022

The Feast of Saints Simon and Jude

Ephesians 2, 19-22

Brothers and sisters: You are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone. Through him the whole structure is held together and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord; in him you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

While St. Paul was teaching the Christian converts of the great city of Ephesus about their now belonging to the Church although still living in the world, his words hold meaning for us as well.  The Church is not some club, association, community, or other social group in which people are joined together by common interest, but a living structure in union with the Son of God.

“You are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God”.   Roman citizenship was much prized in the ancient world.  A person could have it through birth, through purchase, or through service.  Paul himself could boast of his citizenship, which allowed him to appeal his legal case to Caesar.  Citizenship conferred a number of privileges on the holder, making him very different before the law from non-citizens.  To be a fellow citizen "with the “holy ones” meant to have the same “access” to the Father as the holy prophets, apostles, and martyrs.

“Built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone. Through him the whole structure is held together and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord.”  Walafrid of Strabo comments in his Gloss: “There is no one so perfect that he is not able to grow”, meaning that our growth into the temple of God ought to be continuous.

“In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.”  Paul seems to contrast this temple with the great temple to Artemis in the city's center.  Magnificent, rich, and renowned though it was, it remained a dead building. The Church, on the other hand, was constructed of living stones, the cornerstone of which was the Christ who had redeemed mankind and pleaded for it before the Father.  The very foundations consisted of the prophets and apostles, more solid and dependable than any cement or stone.  This reminds of the saying of Jesus that: “He who hears my words and does them is like a wise man who builds his house upon a rock” (Matthew 7, 24).  Nor is it an empty structure, with these foundations and walls, for God himself dwells in it.

Saint Simon, called either “the Canaanite” or “the Zealot” (depending on the translation).  Early Greek Fathers held that he was the bridegroom at the marriage at Cana, due to one of his surnamed.  Various early records conflict as to where he preached and how he died.  The Greeks say that he preached in the neighborhood of the Black Sea, and the Georgians maintain a tradition that he preached in one of their cities, that of Colchis.  

A rich and ancient tradition tells us that St. Jude preached to the Armenians and that he converted their king, leading to the conversion of the rest of the population.  Indeed, the country of Armenia was the first to become a Christian nation.  In the letter to Jewish Christians, written between the years 54-64, he calls himself the “brother of James”, who was still living at the time and was the bishop of the Christians in Jerusalem.  One tradition has it that he and St. Simon were beheaded together in Beirut.