Hello, hope all is well.
Today we recall two of the twelve, Simon and Jude. Jude’s actual name is Judas, but it was shortened to Jude because of Judas Iscariot.
We remember Simon as being a Zealot, an extreme Jewish Nationalistic movement who met their end in 70ce, with the destructions of Jerusalem by Rome
St. Jude we all know as the Saint of Lost and the saint of Impossible Causes. This comes to us due to the number of persons who have experienced Jude’s intercession when people felt that he was their last course of action.
We know that a number of saints have come to be known as one to pray to when something is lost or that they needed a strong intercessor.
When we look at the group that Jesus first called to follow him, he did not call the well-educated, the ultra-religious, but rather fishermen, a tax collector, a zealot (revolutionary), the most common of the common.
Pope Benedict XVI says to us today, “Let us also bear in mind, that the group of the twelve is the prefiguration of the Church, where there must be room of all human qualities that find their composition and unity in communion with Jesus.”
Our church must be open to all. NO ONE should be refused entrance. As St. Augustine once said, “the church is not a hotel for saints, it is a hospital for sinners.”
Peace and All Good,
Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the
Bros and Srs of the
Franciscan House of Prayer.
Leave a Reply