The Apostles Simon and Jude: these guys were on fire! We don’t know much about them. They are paired together in one feast because after Pentecost they evangelized as a team. Maybe they seem to be in the sidelines because each shares his name with other apostles who seem to get more attention.
This Simon is not to be confused with Simon Peter. Jude, also known as Thaddeus, is certainly not to be confused with Judas Iscariot, the Betrayer! This Jude may have been a cousin of Jesus. Simon is called the Zealot, so he might have been a member of a radical Jewish sect called the Zealots, committed to violent overthrow of Roman domination of Judea, before he met Jesus. What they did before meeting Jesus, we don’t know
However, after the Resurrection and after Pentecost – they were on fire!!! Their missionary activity was amazing. Tradition notes that they evangelized in Egypt, in Mesopotamia, Lebanon, Persia, Armenia, Georgia… Simon is said even to gone to Britain… and they are reputed to have been martyred in Beirut.
Wow! Their journey makes me think of the way that Venerable Patrick Peyton travelled the globe too!
Clearly, they were on fire for Christ! For His message of Good News, of Hope, His promise of New and Eternal Life. At Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descended on the Apostles they were quite literally filled with the Holy Spirit!
We might get tired just thinking about what they did. After centuries, the message of Christ seems to some to be tired and old fashioned. We have science. We don’t seem to need God! But look around. What we see in the world is not just malaise.
We seem to live from crisis to crisis while people talk of corruption everywhere. A godless world will suffocate itself!… Now, trying to move out of the pandemic, so many feel stuck and gripped by fear. For others, life so often seems like the “same old same old”!
Yet Saint Paul proclaims, “You are no longer aliens… You are citizens… part of God’s house!” This, my friends is the Truth. Pentecost has come! Christ is with us always! The Holy Spirit awaits to fill each of us!
‘Not that each needs to become a globe trotting missionary! What we need now are Christians ALIVE, ON FIRE, in families, in their homes, our Communities, our Schools, Universities, Businesses, Governments – filled with fire that is the burning love of the Heart of Christ!
Listen to what Saint Paul says: “You too are being built into a house where God lives, in the Spirit." Saints Simon and Jude, pray for us.
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