I have come to enjoy watching a program on National Public Television called Finding Your Roots. Each week the program explores fascinating ancestries and family mysteries of notable guests. Guests are introduced to ancestors that go back generations and, in some instances, the ancestors are from a notable blood line.
And we? What do we know about two of our ancestors in the faith, Simon and Jude, who we are celebrating today?
We heard that we are not strangers, we are fellow citizens with these two holy ones. Together with them we are members of the household of God built upon a foundation with Christ Jesus as our head.
We count among our ancestors Judas (or Saint Jude), patron of hopeless causes, and Simon the Zealot, someone who was either in association with or at least sympathized with the Zealot movement that desired a revolutionary overthrow of the occupying Roman authority. Both are part of our inheritance. These ancestors in the faith left deep prints for us to follow.
We could ask, what prints are we leaving for future generations to discover?
The structure, the church, will prevail for all eternity as God’s handiwork. We were reminded today that each of us is contributing a building block to that structure. No doubt there will continue to be future generations who will be searching to find their roots. What would we like them to know and discover about our contribution to the building up of the Body of Christ on earth?
We heard Saint Luke describe for us how Jesus chose twelve whom He also named Apostles, among them Simon and Judas (or Jude, the son of James.) They were sent forth to preach and heal. Though lacking in material support, they possessed the gifts needed to quench the flaming arrows of the evil one and the armor that included a helmet of salvation and a sword of the Spirit, namely the word of God. In a word, they had faith.
They were encouraged to pray in season and out of season and were assured of the abiding presence of Jesus Christ who, although warned that He would be murdered, did not abandon them nor us, and remains ever ready to gather us to Himself like a shepherd gathers his flock or a hen her brood.
All this awaits those seeking to find their spiritual roots.
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