🕊️The Church today celebrates the feast of two Apostles, St. Simon the Zealot and St. Jude Thaddeus. St. Simon, called "the Zealot" possibly due to his former zeal for the Jewish law or his belonging to the Zealot party, dedicated his life to Christ after being called. St. Jude, author of the canonical epistle bearing his name and known as the patron of desperate causes, was a close relative of Our Lord. Tradition holds that after Pentecost, they both preached the Gospel with great fervor, traveling together through Mesopotamia and Persia. It was there that they sealed their testimony with their blood, suffering martyrdom around the year 65. Their union in apostolate and martyrdom is a powerful symbol of communion in the Church, built upon the foundation of the Apostles.
📖 Epistle (Eph 4:7-13)
Brethren: But to every one of us is given grace, according to the measure of the giving of Christ. Wherefore he saith: Ascending on high, he led captivity captive; he gave gifts to men. Now that he ascended, what is it, but because he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended above all the heavens, that he might fill all things. And he gave some apostles, and some prophets, and other some evangelists, and other some pastors and doctors, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: until we all meet into the unity of faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the age of the fulness of Christ.
✝️ Gospel (Jn 15:17-25)
At that time, Jesus said to his disciples: These things I command you, that you love one another. If the world hate you, know ye, that it hath hated me before you. If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember my word that I said to you: The servant is not greater than his master. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you: if they have kept my word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for my name's sake: because they know not him that sent me. If I had not come, and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. He that hateth me, hateth my Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no other man hath done, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated both me and my Father. But that the word may be fulfilled which is written in their law: They hated me without cause.
🕯️ Reflections
🙏This day's Gospel reveals the paradoxical condition of a disciple of Christ: to be chosen for love and, for that very reason, to be the target of the world's hatred. Jesus' words to St. Simon, St. Jude, and the other apostles are not an easy comfort, but a prophecy fulfilled in their lives and in the life of the Church throughout the centuries. "If the world hate you, know ye, that it hath hated me before you." This hatred is not a sign of failure, but the mark of the authenticity of divine election. The world, understood as the system of values opposed to God, loves its own: selfishness, pride, self-sufficiency. By choosing the Apostles "out of the world," Christ set them apart for a different logic, that of self-giving love, service, and truth. The martyrdom of Simon and Jude in Persia was not a tragic accident, but the logical consequence of their fidelity to a Master who was Himself hated "without cause."
⛪The Epistle to the Ephesians offers the divine structure that sustains the community of the elect amidst the world's hostility. Christ, by ascending to heaven, did not abandon His own; on the contrary, "he gave gifts to men." These gifts are not merely human talents, but ministerial roles—Apostles, Prophets, Pastors—intended for the "edifying of the body of Christ." St. Simon and St. Jude were primary recipients and instruments of this apostolic gift. The unity of faith and mutual love, the central precept of the Gospel, are not just feelings but the result of the grace that flows from Christ, the Head, to the members of His Body. St. Augustine, commenting on the Gospel of John, explains that the love among the disciples is the visible sign that distinguishes them from the world and gives them the strength to endure its hatred. "Let no one be mistaken, brethren: there are but two cities, one that loves God to the contempt of self, and one that loves self to the contempt of God. The world belongs to the latter. Therefore it hates those who belong to the former" (St. Augustine, City of God, Book XIV, 28). The apostolate, therefore, is the ministry of building this city of God on earth, a body united by love, capable of resisting the dissolution preached by the world.
📜The liturgical celebration of the Apostles reminds us that the Church is, by her nature, "apostolic," as we profess in the Creed. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that she is "built on the foundation of the Apostles" (CCC 857), men as frail as Simon and Jude, but who became firm pillars by the grace of Christ. The mission they received to preach the truth and administer the sacraments continues through their successors, the bishops. The Preface of the Apostles in the Roman Missal expresses this perennial reality: "For you, eternal Shepherd, do not desert your flock, but through the blessed Apostles watch over it and protect it always, so that it may be governed by those same shepherds whom you set over it as vicars of your Son." The world's hatred persists, but the "gifts" of the risen Christ also persist. Today's feast is thus an invitation to renew our faith in the divine structure of the Church and to live the commandment of love, which is its soul, knowing that our union in Christ is the only force capable of overcoming the world.
✍️See English version of the critical articles here.
