Saturday, October 28, 2023

Feast of Saints Simon and Jude Thaddeus, Apostles

Eph 2:19-22;

Ps 18;

Lk 6:12-16

Feast of Apostles Simon and Judas Thaddeus. The apostles were the first missionaries, chosen and sent by Jesus. Before choosing the apostles, Jesus prayed all night long. This could have meant that it was a difficult prayer. Perhaps he had talked all night with his Father discussing who he should choose as his apostles? Or perhaps he was discussing Judas’ presence in this group? None of us know. It is a secret between Father and Son, but two things are nevertheless certain. First, the more important the decisions to be made, the more intensely Jesus prayed. Next, Jesus did not choose anyone so extraordinary, no one among the rich or the learned, but chose simple, ordinary people with their own problems and imperfections. And it was precisely they who were sent by Jesus to proclaim the Gospel, making them his closest co-workers. Into their hands he entrusted the future of the Church and the mission of evangelization, and into our hands as well, because even today God calls us by name. On each of our birthdays, God has shown that the world could not exist without us.

Mission Week is coming to an end, but our missionary efforts do not end. Let us participate in missionary animation and cooperation through witness of life, personal formation, dissemination of information about the Church’s missionary work and with material support. Above all, let us not forget prayer, the first means of missionary cooperation. (Remember: Jesus prayed all night long before choosing the apostles). Let us support today’s Apostles, that is, missionaries, with our prayer. Just as without the cornerstone the whole building is in danger of collapsing, so too the mission of the Church (and therefore ours) must rest on this cornerstone which is Christ Jesus. Only “through him the whole structure is held together and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord” (Eph 2:21) the temple of our personal and family life, the temple of the whole universal Church, beginning with our parish to the ends of the earth.