CALLED TO APOSTOLIC HERITAGE

FEAST OF SS. SIMON AND JUDE, APOSTLES

Eph 2:19-22; Ps 19:2-5; Lk 6:12-16

Called by the Will of the Father

We celebrate the feast of the two apostles, Simon and Jude. The feast offers us an opportunity to reflect on the dignity of the vocation these two received from our Lord Jesus Christ, who chose them according to the will of the Father. The privilege of their call rests on the Person of the Eternal Word made flesh and dwelt among us. God called them to direct and physical interaction with God, who assumed our human nature to save us. What they witnessed was something beyond the human mind to imagine. The prophets of old foretold the coming of the Son of God, but the reality was something they could not have imagined, not to talk of believed if told to them. Our Lord himself made mention of the great privilege his call offered them. He revealed to them that it was the great desire of the men of old and the prophets to see what they were beholding and to hear what they were hearing. But these were not granted them. God called them into the harvest that others worked and laboured for. The apostles received this great privilege as priests of the New Testament, containing promises and heavenly blessings the Father has given to all in his Son Jesus Christ. They received these in trust to mediate them to us, called to the same inheritance. Thus, they are not blessed alone; the fullness of the blessing they received must be with us.

Based on this idea of their mediatory role, St. Paul reminds us of our blessedness in Jesus Christ. He used the image of a building to represent our relationship with the apostles and prophets of God. “You are no longer aliens or foreign visitors: you are citizens like all the saints, and part of God’s household. You are part of a building that has the apostles and prophets for its foundations and Christ Jesus himself for its main cornerstone.” We are part of the priestly household of God. Just like God called the apostles to receive and mediate the graces and heavenly blessings, which are beyond comprehension, he called us to accept Jesus Christ and make him present in the minds and hearts of those we interact with daily. We are part of a building that God the Father is building through his Son and Holy Spirit. The humanity of Jesus Christ is the main cornerstone, with the prophets and apostles forming its foundation. We are not only part of the building through our faith in Jesus Christ but also participate in the building as instruments in the hand of God, who inspires and directs our thoughts and actions through the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. As the building rests on Jesus Christ, every thought, word, and action not arising from our faith in Jesus Christ and directed to the glory of God is not building up the divine house but removing from its construction. We have clarity on this from Paul’s words: “As every structure is aligned on him, all grow into one holy temple in the Lord; and you too, in him, are being built into a house where God lives, in the Spirit.”

Both our days and nights must tell the story of our Lord Jesus Christ. The days here mean our joyful and delightful experiences in life, and the nights mean our experience of afflictions and pains. They must give glory to God and praise his holy Name and Will. “Day unto day takes up the story and night unto night makes known the message.” These characterised the life of the apostles who used their afflictions and consolations to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to us. The Gospel tells us how our Lord chose the apostle after a prayerful night. This story confirms that our choice, similar to the choice of the apostles, was directed by God the Father himself. We cannot be fruitful without his divine will for our lives. The vocation to the holy priesthood of Jesus Christ is to give or mediate the will of the Father to others. It is the sacred thing the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ handed us. It is the holy thing we are to receive daily in prayer, meditating and contemplating the word of God and the mysteries of our Lord, and hand over to others we encounter. Our vocation with the apostles is to do the will of God and make it known to others through our lives. “No speech, no word, no voice is heard yet their span extends through all the earth, their words to the utmost bounds of the world.”

Let us pray: O God, who by the blessed Apostles have brought us to acknowledge your name, graciously grant, through the intercession of Saints Simon and Jude, that the Church may constantly grow by increase of the peoples who believe in you.