Today October 28

Today is the double feast of Saints Simon and Jude, (First century). These two are apostles, always linked together, even if only tenuously in the Eastern tradition (they are strongly linked in the Western). We know Simon was chosen among the apostles, and while the surnames given to him imply he was born in Cana, it is also true that he was very zealous in his faith even as a Jew (and not necessarily that he belonged to the particular party of the Zealots.) Of Jude we know a bit more: he is one of the so-called "brothers of the Lord" -- a kinsman, likely a brother of St. James the Less. After the Last Supper, he asked the immortal question -- why didn't Christ manifest Himself to the rest of the world. And Jesus reassured him that He and the Father would visit all those who love Him. I think this effectively counters the so-called "scandal of particularity," which so afflicts modern man and plays into a New-Agey desire to make Jesus some kind of diffuse and esoteric wisdom or force that manifests itself to every people and culture . . . and not just a person in a particular place during a particular (and brief) period of history.

Jude wrote (or has attributed to him) one of the letters of the New Testament (a so-called "catholic epistle" because it wasn't directed to any church or person in particular). It's a good epistle for modern times; warning as it does against false teachers, "ungodly men, turning the grace of our Lord God into riotousness, . . .and flattering people to gain advantage."

In Eastern tradition, both men died in peace in Edessa (or possibly Beirut, in St. Jude's case), but in Western tradition they were both martyred in Persia. They also supposedly sent Abdias as missionary to (what is now) Iraq. They themselves traveled through there, gently evangelizing, until they arrived in Persia and gave their ultimate witness.

Tradition holds that many years later, Emperor Domitian hauled St. Jude's two grandsons, Zoker and James, before him, worried that being of the royal house of David, they might be threat to him. But seeing them as humble, impoverished tradesmen, he let them go.

Saints Simon and Jude, patron of "desperate cases," pray for us.