MP: Psalm 66; Isaiah 28:9-16; Ephesians 4:1-16EP: Psalms 116, 117; Isaiah 4:1-6; John 14:15-31
We know so very little about St. Simon and St. Jude. The Gospels do not provide much information about them. Lesser Feasts and Fasts provides some non-historical accounts that have been past down through the ages. And yet, we still honor these unknown folk because we know that they, in some way, were with Jesus for the short period of time he was here among us in corporeal form.
I wonder if we keep these legends alive, of people like Simon and Jude, because we all yearn, somewhere deep within ourselves, to know what it was like to be in that presence. We wonder what his voice was like. What did he look like? What would it have been like to see, with our own eyes, one of those miraculous healings he performed on a regular basis. Although we can see miraculous miracles happening around us, I think it is natural to wonder what it was like to be in that presence when it all started. Would we have understood the magnitude of what was going on? Would I have recognized God among us? I hope I would have, but I don't know for a fact that I actually would have. And so, perhaps, this is why we keep these mysterious unknown saints in our lectionary calendar, to help us imagine, know and remember that Christ was near unto them, just as he is near unto us today.
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Copyright 2008, John F. Dwyer. All Rights Reserved.
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