| Love is a Treasure |  | | I am poor and when I have nothing to give to the poor, I give them my soul, my heart, and my love, since love is worth much more than money offerings. --Blessed Piety of the Cross | | |
Sts. Simon and Jude
Jude is so named by Luke and Acts. Matthew and Mark call him Thaddeus. He is not mentioned elsewhere in the Gospels, except, of course, where all the apostles are mentioned. Scholars hold that he is not the author of the Letter of Jude. Actually, Jude had the same name as Judas Iscariot. Evidently because of the disgrace of that name, it was shortened to "Jude" in English. Simon is mentioned on all four lists of the apostles. On two of them he is called "the Zealot." The Zealots were a Jewish sect that represented an extreme of Jewish nationalism. For them, the messianic promise of the Old Testament meant that the Jews were to be a free and independent nation. God alone was their king, and any payment of taxes to the Romans—the very domination of the Romans—was a blasphemy against God. No doubt some of the Zealots were the spiritual heirs of the Maccabees, carrying on their ideals of religion and independence. But many were the counterparts of modern terrorists. They raided and killed, attacking both foreigners and "collaborating" Jews. They were chiefly responsible for the rebellion against Rome which ended in the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.
As in the case of all the apostles except for Peter, James and John, we are faced with men who are really unknown, and we are struck by the fact that their holiness is simply taken to be a gift of Christ. He chose some unlikely people: a former Zealot, a former (crooked) tax collector, an impetuous fisherman, two "sons of thunder" and a man named Judas Iscariot.
"Just as Christ was sent by the Father, so also he sent the apostles, filled with the Holy Spirit. This he did so that, by preaching the gospel to every creature (cf. Mark 16:15), they might proclaim that the Son of God, by his death and resurrection, had freed us from the power of Satan (cf. Acts 26:18) and from death, and brought us into the kingdom of his Father" (Vatican II, Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy).
 Saint of the DayLives, Lessons and FeastBy Leonard Foley, O.F.M.; revised by Pat McCloskey, O.F.M.
Presence I pause for a moment and think of the love and the grace that God showers on me, creating me in his image and likeness, making me his temple.... Freedom Lord, may I never take the gift
of freedom for granted. You gave
me the great blessing of freedom of
spirit. Fill my spirit with Your peace and
Your joy. Consciousness How do I find myself today?
Where am I with God? With others?
Do I have something to be grateful for? Then I give thanks.
Is there something I am sorry for? Then I ask forgiveness. The Word of God Brothers and sisters:
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 himself as the 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. R. (5a) Their message goes out through all the earth.
The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.
Day pours out the word to day,
and night to night imparts knowledge.
R. Their message goes out through all the earth.
Not a word nor a discourse
whose voice is not heard;
Through all the earth their voice resounds,
and to the ends of the world, their message.
R. Their message goes out through all the earth. Jesus went up to the mountain to pray,
and he spent the night in prayer to God.
When day came, he called his disciples to himself,
and from them he chose Twelve, whom he also named Apostles:
Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew,
James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew,
Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus,
Simon who was called a Zealot,
and Judas the son of James,
and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
Listen to audio of this reading
Watch a video reflection
Conversation Jesus, You always welcomed little children when you walked on this earth. Teach me to have a childlike trust in you. To live in the knowledge that You will never abandon me. Conclusion Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end.
Saint Simon and Saint Jude, Apostles You are fellow citizens with the holy ones. (Ephesians 2:19) Have you ever admired a family member so deeply that you were willing to devote your life to their cause? Many people find it hard to rise above old family rivalries in this way, but this is exactly what St. Jude succeeded in doing. Scripture describes him as a "brother," that is, a near relative of the Lord. Unlike other members of Jesus' extended family who at one point thought he was mad, Jude humbly accepted Jesus first as his Rabbi and eventually as his Lord. So little do we know about this apostle who is usually paired with Simon and whose name appears just before Judas that we aren't even sure of his name. Some scholars believe that he is the "Thaddeus" named by Matthew and Mark. After the Holy Spirit was poured out on the disciples on Pentecost, tradition says that Jude traveled to Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq), where he contended with sorcerers and magicians to preach the good news of the gospel, and was martyred by being clubbed to death. At some point and for unknown reasons, people began seeking his intercession in matters that seemed hopeless. The disciple who shares Jude's feast day is also largely a mystery. "Simon"—not Simon Peter—is described as both "Simon the Canaanite" and "Simon who was called the Zealot." The Zealots provoked a failed revolt against Roman rule in a.d. 66--70. Were they also active thirty years earlier, during Jesus' lifetime? Or did the word "Zealot" mean that Simon was on fire with zeal for the gospel? We don't know. Tradition tells us that after preaching in Egypt, Simon joined Jude in Persia and was later martyred with him. All Christians today trace our faith to those first disciples who left everything familiar to share the good news with strangers. Today's feast reminds us to pray for modern-day apostles who leave home and family and risk their lives to bring the love of Jesus to those still waiting to hear about him. "Lord Jesus, may those who leave home and family and risk all for the gospel be supported by your Spirit in the difficult task of bringing your good news to an often hostile world." Psalm 19:2-5; Luke 6:12-16
my2cents:
You may think that we have very little to go by, but it actually takes very little to make something big. Am I talking about life at conception? Am I talking about a thought? What about a whisper from God? What if God were asking for something little like...oh I don't know, maybe asking you to be a saint? I noticed at this last cursillo there was a couple of Dallas Cowboys fans. I am very jealous of this...as if a zealot like today's Saint. I am jealous for God. I don't like for sports to take over. I don't like for your time and money and love to go for that, over God. I am jealous, perhaps because I am zealous. I couldn't say nothing last night as I fueled up after our rosary and reunion group of Cursillistas, at the gas station the old lady attending was cheering on her Cowboys, and I said "you know, not everyone is a fan of them". She said "oh but I am" and then she went on, "my daddy loved them cowboys until the day he died and now I love them too". That gets to me. Because I pray at funeral vigils and have seen where instead of a rosary, a symbol of prayer in their hands, there is a Cowboys Jersey stretched over the body's torso. I am jealous and mad, and I pray all the more, because the Cowboys will not get you into Heaven, it is an illusion, a love that does not love in return, not like God, not forever in eternity and beyond, because God is even beyond eternity. And I say all of this because we are forging bonds in our loved ones lives by our loves. Who do you love above all? And does it show? Now I'm talking about our love of God above all. I see tattoos, last names, shapes, symbols, some crosses, what does all that mean? Your life? Your love? Where is God in your forever? Why would I stain my skin? Why would I stain my soul? Because we are a body, temples built on the temples that Jesus chose. Ahh, now Adrian is getting under my skin! AHA! YES. Let's go deeper. Why do you NOT want to be a saint my child? Because our loves our twisted, to the point that you think you don't deserve or are called. Today we read "you are no longer sojourners or strangers but fellow citizens with THE HOLY ONES". SAY WHAT? YES. We are fellow citizens in the Kingdom of God, right now we have the opportunity to seize forever what is rightly ours, an eternal love with God. The Psalm prays on "THEIR MESSAGE goes out through ALL the earth". The message has landed right before your very eyes. my child, I'm calling you for me! And so as I knelt before the body of our faithful parishioner,Lydia, Sunday night at the funeral home, I prayed for her, and it was as if God/Jesus said "this one is mine". She was a 72 yr. old woman that looked pretty, maybe 50 or so, and I told the people "I would not be amazed if 200 years from now they exumed her body and it would look the same as it does now, she was a saint, she put others' needs before hers, very simple". She was more human than most. They say her home was very small, a little house her daddy had built decades ago. Even though it was falling apart, she would not move out. Notice again, a daughter in love with her daddy's building. Now, let's go back to the Gospel, the building our Daddy in Heaven has built. Don't you ever move out, but move in. You should love this and carry it on to your children's children, the message "Love your Father in Heaven with all your heart, all your mind, all your strength". I almost lost it when I was dedicating one last song at the funeral vigil, "Lord I Give You My Heart" at the part that sings "I give you my heart, and I give you my SOUL". I had heard this song at my wife's ACTS retreat, and as I stared at her singing to God those words, I fell in love with a whole new woman, a daughter of God our Father, for my wife was now giving her love to her Daddy along with the nearly 40 women or so there. I am saying this so that you will carry on the zeal of what I am jealous for...God. I will hate what keeps you from Him, and 100% of the time it is sin. I hope that stain is removed, because only Purity reigns in Heaven. Only what is good, because God is good, and you are good right now, I'm serious, only here we've to dust ourselves off in preparation for what is to come...
 adrian
Subscribe
|
No comments:
Post a Comment