Word to the Wise
Tuesday, October 28, 2025 - Oct. 28 - Sts. Simon and Jude, Apostles
[Eph 2:19-22 and Luke 6:12-19]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 as its 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. [Ephesians]
The words "the foundation of the Apostles..." in the first scripture today calls attention to the gospel scripture for today which lists the twelve disciples whom Jesus appointed to be "apostles." Jesus gives them that title, which comes from a Greek word that means someone who is sent to do a particular task. It is an amazing group which contains impulsive Peter, a fisherman along with James and John, also fishermen, tax collector Matthew, political activist Simon, skeptic Thomas, and a traitor, Judas. It was quite a "motley crew!" Yet they would become the foundation stones of the new temple, the Church.
We celebrate two of them today. We know very little about either of them after their appointment other than Simon being a sympathizer of the movement to throw out the Romans, and Jude becoming, through a legend, the patron saint of hopeless causes. The popular devotion to St. Jude is celebrated in shrines and parishes by a novena. In the past, I have preached a couple of those novenas in Chicago and New Orleans.
Jesus did not call perfect people to be his closest associates. Yet, he washed their feet, even Judas' feet, at the Last Supper and ordered them to do the same. Before his betrayal, Judas was part of the apostolate and worked healings and cast out demons like the others! But the Church got its start with Pentecost and the preaching of the Twelve. (Matthias was added to replace Judas before Pentecost.) Each Sunday, we profess our faith in "one holy, catholic and apostolic Church!" Today's feast serves to remind us of our foundations and our own mission as disciples to continue theirs. AMEN
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