Saturday in the 29th Week of Ordinary Time, October 28, 2023

The Feast of Saints Simon and Jude, Apostles

Luke 6, 12–16

Jesus went up to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God. When day came, he called his disciples to himself, and from them he chose Twelve, whom he also named Apostles: Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called a Zealot, and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

The Apostles likely remained in Jerusalem for a few years after receiving the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.  It is evident from The Acts of the Apostles that for some time they still prayed in the Temple and they continued to preach to the people even after being warned and punished by the Jewish rulers.  Peter also made mission trips to such places as Antioch but returned to Jerusalem after each one.  That the Apostles are all still in Jerusalem a few years after Pentecost is also clear from a comment St. Luke makes in his Acts, that after the martyrdom of the deacon St. Stephen, the Jewish leaders and the Pharisees inaugurated a wider persecution of the Christians and these fled Jerusalem, carrying the Faith with them, while the Apostles alone remained: “They were all dispersed through the countries of Judea, and Samaria, except the Apostles” (Acts of the Apostles 8, 1).  The Apostles stayed in Jerusalem during this time because they wanted to concentrate on winning over their fellow Jews to the new Faith in Jesus.  They also believed, at least for a time, that the Lord would be returning soon to Jerusalem in glory to judge the living and the dead.  But by the year 48, st the latest, nearly all the Apostles had gone out to the nations to preach the Gospel, for the council held in Jerusalem to determine whether the Gentiles needed to become Jews in order to become Christians was governed only by Saints Peter, James, and John.  Already, when, in the year 36 or 37, the recently converted Paul met Peter in Jerusalem, the only other Apostle he saw was James the son of Alphaeus: “Then, after three years, I went to Jerusalem to see Peter: and I tarried with him fifteen days. But other of the apostles I saw none, saving James the brother of the Lord” (Galatians 1, 18-19).  

St. Jude left with the other Apostles to preach during this time.  It is possible that, along with James, the son of Alphaeus, that Jude was related to Jesus, for his name may have been mentioned in Matthew 13, 55 on the occasion of the Lord’s return to Nazareth: “Is not his Mother called Mary, and his brethren James, and Joseph, and Simon, and Jude.”  He called himself “the brother of James”, that is, James the son of Alphaeus, in the first verse of his Letter, departed from the other Apostles.  Evidently a Galilean, he is said to have preached for a time in that region, including in Samaria,  before setting out for Asia Minor and then into Armenia, at that time a sizable kingdom and a sometime ally of the Roman Empire.  It existed on the east of Asia Minor and encompassed parts of what is now Iraq and the Caucasus region.  During his time in Armenia he converted the king of the country.  The Armenians to this day revere him as the founder of their faith.  It one tradition, Jude was later beheaded in the city of Beirut.  A curious tradition found in the work of a thirteenth century Greek saint asserts that Jude had been the groom at the wedding of Cana and followed Jesus after learning of how Jesus had turned the water into wine.

St. Simon is also thought to have been related to Jesus on account of Matthew 13, 55.  In the lists of the Apostles found in the Gospels he is called either “the zealot” or “the Canaanite”.  The Hebrew words have the same root.  Since “the Canaanite” was long an anachronism by the time of Jesus (and a term implying pagan worship), his surname is better translated “the zealot”, that is, a member of a party of Jews who strongly opposed Roman rule.  Tradition holds that after leaving Jerusalem he preached in Galilee and eventually in Persia, where he helped establish the Church.  Tradition also holds that he and Jude were martyred together in Beirut, although another tradition holds that he was sawn in two in Persia by order of the king.

In the First Reading for today’s Mass, St. Paul told the Christians at Ephesus, “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” (Ephesians 2, 19-20).  We owe so much to the Apostles who first preached the Faith and whose Gospels and Letters make up what we call the New Testament that the Church is called Apostolic.  We profit today from them through their writings and through their prayers.