Reading 1 Eph 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.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 19:2-3, 4-5
R. (5a) Their message goes out through all the earth.
The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.
Day pours out the word to day,
and night to night imparts knowledge.
R. Their message goes out through all the earth.
Not a word nor a discourse
whose voice is not heard;
Through all the earth their voice resounds,
and to the ends of the world, their message.
R. Their message goes out through all the earth.
Gospel Lk 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.
Meditation: Ephesians 2:19-22
“You are fellow citizens with the holy ones.” (Ephesians 2:19)
Who me? Equal to the great saints of the church? Impossible! No, not at all.
Simon and Jude, whose feast we celebrate today, probably had similar questions. They were not the most prominent of the apostles. Unlike Peter, James, and John, they weren’t there at the transfiguration. They didn’t get to see Jesus raise Jairus’ daughter from the dead. They weren’t witnesses to Jesus’ agony in the garden. Surely these two felt like tagalongs every now and then!
Simon and Jude may not have received a lot of attention in the Gospels, but their lives after Pentecost were far from ordinary. Oral traditions surrounding Simon abound, placing him in locales as far flung as Galstonbury and Persia. And though Jude is not said to have traveled as far, he is credited with bringing the gospel to Armenia before being martyred in Beirut.
This is the beauty of the life we have inherited from the apostles. Simon and Jude show us that while we all have a vital role to play in God’s plan, none of us can play every role all the time. That doesn’t make any of us less valuable or less important. It just makes us all members of the same family. St. Paul once used the analogy of a human body to illustrate this truth: A hand cannot do what a foot can do, but both are necessary. Just as every vein and every capillary is vital to our proper functioning, so are we vital to the growth and health of the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12-27).
The fact that so many places lay claim to these two lesser-known apostles shows that they had an influence far beyond what the gospels tell us. It also shows that anyone can make a difference, no matter how obscure or insignificant he or she may appear to be. Whether we are preaching from the pulpit, changing diapers at home, or fixing cars in the local repair shop, we are all vital to the Lord and to his church. No one can ever replace the unique witness you give!
“Jesus, help me to embrace my role and my dignity as a citizen of your kingdom. Show me how I can make a difference today.”
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