28 October 2021 - homily for the feast of St Simon and St Jude – Luke 6:12-16

      We celebrate the feast of St Jude and St Simon today, two of Jesus’ apostles.  In Scripture, there are not a lot of details given about the apostles, but we also know many things about about them from the Tradition that has been passed down to us, things that are not included in Scripture.  Jude has become a popular saint in the Church.  He is mentioned in the list of the apostles in the Gospel of Luke and in Acts.  St. Jude is known as the patron saint of lost causes and desperate situations in our Roman Catholic tradition.  This is due to the tradition that, because his name was similar to the traitor Judas Iscariot, originally, few Christians prayed for his intercessions, out of the mistaken belief that they would be praying to Judas Iscariot.  As a result, St. Jude was somewhat ignored, so he became eager to assist anyone who approached him, to the point of intervening in very dire circumstances.  To encourage veneration of this "forgotten" apostle, the Church maintained that St. Jude would intervene in any lost cause to prove his saintliness and zeal for Christ, and thus St. Jude became the patron of lost causes.  It is so interesting to see the roots of some of the traditions we have in our Church

        Simon is mentioned on all four lists of the apostles.  On two of those lists he is called "the Zealot.”  The Zealots were members of a very nationalistic Jewish sect that saw the Messiah coming to restore them to military greatness and to lead a free and independent nation. Tradition has it that Simon and Jude went to Persia together as missionaries, where they were martyred for the faith.  They are buried together in the same tomb in St Peter’s basilica, below the St Joseph Altar at the left transept of the basilica. 

        Even though we don't know a lot of details about many of the apostles, we do know that they are responsible for passing down the faith that we practice today, that they suffered and sacrificed in order to spread God’s word throughout the world.  As we hear in the Gospel of the 12 apostles whom Jesus called by name, we know that they were not the richest, not the most intelligent, not from the most prestigious families in society, but rather that they were very human in their weaknesses and their flaws.   They came from all walks of life, including tax collectors, tradesmen, and fisherman.  In the midst of our human flaws and weaknesses, the Lord calls us to be his followers, to live out our faith in the reality of our lives.  

         St Jude is our parish’s patron saint.  We pray for his intercession today in a special way.  We will pray the litany of St Jude at the conclusion of Mass today.