Saints Simon and Jude, Apostles – Readings

Commentary on Ephesians 2:19-22; Luke 6:12-19

The Gospel reading from Luke describes Jesus choosing his twelve Apostles. As happens regularly in Luke, Jesus is shown praying before any major action or decision. Luke tells us that Jesus went out to the mountain to pray, and spent the whole night in communion with his Father.

Luke speaks of “the mountain”, although we do not know which one it is. But in the Scriptures, generally mountains are holy places where one can more easily commune with God. Famous mountains in the Scriptures are Mount Sinai, where Moses spoke face to face with God; Mount Carmel, associated with the prophet Elijah; and Mount Zion, where the Temple of Jerusalem was situated. There is also the Mount of the Transfiguration, although again it is not certain which mountain is being referred to.

Then at daybreak Jesus called all his disciples together, and from among them chose twelve to be his Apostles. The names are then given and they include “Simon called the Zealot” and “Judas [or Jude] son of James”, the two Apostles we commemorate today.

What is the difference between ‘disciple’ and ‘apostle’? Are the terms interchangeable? Not really. Every ‘apostle’ is a ‘disciple’ but not every one of Jesus’ ‘disciples’ was formally called an ‘apostle’.

The word ‘disciple’ comes from the Latin verb discere, which means ‘to learn’. A ‘disciple’ then is someone who learns from a master and tries to follow in his footsteps. The word ‘apostle’ comes from the Greek verb apostello, of which the noun is apostolos. This signifies someone who is sent out on a mission bringing an important message from someone in authority, an ambassador or an envoy.

Jesus had many disciples, but just 12 of them were chosen to pass on his teaching after he had left them. They, in turn, would appoint others with the same mandate. Today, it is our bishops who have that mandate.

However, we might also say that every single baptised person is really called to be both a disciple of Jesus and an apostle, charged with passing on the gospel message. Every single one of Jesus’ followers was called to be the ‘salt of the earth’ and the ‘light of the world’ and to behave in such a way that people would be led to God.

In the First Reading, from the Letter to the Ephesians, Paul (the supposed author of this letter) is speaking to Gentiles who have become Christians. So he tells them:

…you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God…

‘Saints’ (Greek, hagioi) means ‘people set apart, people who are different’. ‘Saints’ is a term used by Paul to speak of members of the Christian communities. Here he is saying that the baptised Gentiles now belong fully to that family.

Paul also sees the Church as a building whose foundation is composed of the Apostles and the prophets, with Christ himself as the headstone. The whole structure then becomes a “holy temple in the Lord”. This is the Temple of the New Testament, replacing that of the Old Testament in Jerusalem (although when the Letter was written that Temple was still in existence).

So, as Paul will say elsewhere, the Temple of the New Covenant is built not only with bricks and mortar and confined to one place, but also consists of people. Wherever there is a Christian community, the Risen Christ is present there:

…in him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.

So, it is not the church building which makes us holy, rather it is we who make the church building holy by our presence in it.

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Saints Simon and Jude, Apostles

Apart from their names in the Gospel, there is very little we know definitely about the two Apostles, Simon and Jude. Simon is called either the Canaanite or the Zealot (Matt 10:4, Mark 3:18, Luke 6:15, Acts 1:13) by the evangelists. To distinguish him from Simon Peter, he is called Kananaios (‘Kananites’ in Matthew and Mark) and Zelotes (Zealot, in Luke and in Acts). Both titles come from the Hebrew qana, which means ‘the zealous one’, but some, like St Jerome, misread it as a reference to the town of Cana or to the region of Canaan. This led to a story that at the wedding feast at Cana (John 2:1-12) Simon was the bridegroom!

The preferred reading in all the texts now is ‘Zealot’. Zealot may indicate his membership in a strict Jewish sect. There was a party called Zealots famous in the war of the Jews against their Roman occupiers. They killed many of the nobility and filled the Temple with blood and brought ruin on their people. But there is no clear evidence they existed in Jesus’ lifetime.

This verse from the Gospel of Mark (6:3) also refers to a Judas and Simon:

Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?

But the New Testament does not relate this Simon to any of the Apostles.

After Pentecost, Simon, like several other Apostles, is not heard of again in the New Testament. However, there is an abundance of legends about his subsequent life and final martyrdom. One eastern source gives Edessa in Mesopotamia as the place where he died, but a western tradition (represented by the Roman Missal and the Martyrology) affirms that he first preached in Egypt.

He then joined his fellow Apostle Jude, who was in Mesopotamia, and they both went east to Persia. Here they were martyred at Sufian (or at Siani). In one story, their throats were cut and in another, Simon was sawn in two, like the prophet Isaiah. This tradition dates from the 6th century, 300-400 years after the Apostle’s death, but devotion to him goes back much further.

There is even a tradition that Simon got as far as Britain, perhaps Glastonbury, and was martyred in Lincolnshire. In art Simon is usually symbolised with a boat or a falchion (an axe-like sword), allegedly the weapon by which heathen priests cut him down.

Jude is called “Judas, son of James” by Luke in his Gospel (Luke 6:16) and in Acts (1:13). He is called “Judas (not Iscariot)” in John’s Gospel (John 14:22). He is commonly identified with Thaddaeus, who appears in the list of Apostles in Matthew and Mark, but where there is no mention of Jude. He is also believed to be the author of the Letter in the New Testament bearing his name.

As with Simon, nothing certain is known of his life after Pentecost, but again there are many legends. As mentioned, a Western tradition says that he joined up with Simon to preach the gospel in Persia, where he, too, died a martyr’s death.

In more modern times, Jude has acquired the reputation as the ‘Apostle of the impossible’, as attested by expressions of gratitude in Catholic devotional periodicals. The origin of this devotion is said to be that no one would pray to him because his name was so like that of the traitor Judas Iscariot. Only people who had tried every other option would in desperation turn to him!

The relics of Simon and Jude are believed to have been brought to St Peter’s in Rome in the 7th-8th century. Rheims and Toulouse also claim to have relics.

In art, Jude’s usual emblem is a club, the instrument of his death. Otherwise, he holds a ship, while Simon holds a fish. This is perhaps because, as a cousin of the Zebedee brothers, he was also a fisherman.

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