You are a Work-in-Progress (Feast of Simon and Thaddeus, Oct. 28)

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This portion of the Letter of St Paul to Ephesians (Eph. 2:19-22) is mostly read whenever we celebrate the feast of an apostle or apostles as the case may be. The message of St Paul to the Ephesians here is that their being founded or established on the faith and testimonies of the apostles has conferred upon them a new status of being fellow citizens with saints and members of God’s household. Interesting!

Who are these apostles? The apostles were only twelve in number as the gospel reading (Luke 6: 12-19) recounts. We can remember few names of the apostles, maybe because of the prominence of what they did. Sometimes, the few that some of us can remember are Peter, James and John, Matthew and Judas Iscariot. But these few are not just the apostles that Jesus chose before His earthly ministry. We tend to forget others maybe because physically they did not do much, as much as we know. But Ephesians tells us that they all form part of the foundation stone of our faith in Christ. We may have very few materials that tell us few things about the apostles (Simon and Jude) we celebrate today but inasmuch as they are part of the foundation stone of our faith, they must have made real impacts for Christ among those they ministered to. 

When we take a look at the apostles chosen by Christ, we see that they were not perfect human beings: each had his own baggage of weakness and “background” limitations. But they were equally chosen. Before they were called and chosen, Christ went into the hills to pray throughout the night. From the multitude of disciples which He had, He chose only twelve; amongst them are Simon, a Zealot, and Jude Thaddeus. If we really understand who a “Zealot” is, we may have questioned the choice that Jesus made. The Zealots were Jewish fanatics, much like the fanatics of our time who can kill and destroy in the name of God. For the Zealots, the Messiah will come for the Jews only. You may ask: How would a Zealot like Simon with an extremist mentality serve as an apostle to non-Jews? But Jesus chose him. In such weakness, he was called but Christ believed that His grace is more powerful than human weakness. With Christ, in Christ and through Christ, a Zealot like Simon was refashioned to become a veritable instrument of the good news even to the Gentiles that he formerly hated. 

When Jesus was busy talking to His disciples about His relationship with God His Father (cf. John 14), when He was trying very hard to explain that He is in the Father and the Father is in Him and that those who love Him and keep His commandments will be loved by His Father and that He will reveal Himself to them, Jude Thaddeus asked him what may sound like a very dumb question, “Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?” Was this man, who couldn’t even comprehend the simple point Jesus was making, among those chosen to go and preach the message of Jesus to the world? Jesus foreknew all these things. He foreknew that they were imperfect but He chose them and transformed them into giants in faith, knowledge and power.

We may be seen as extremely selfish and fanatical as Simon the Zealot and daft as Jude Thaddeus. But we can’t rule out the power of grace which transformed the imperfect apostles of Jesus into veritable and effective instruments of His message of salvation. That power can still work through your weakness and even refashion you into a better version of yourself. Leave yourself at the hands of Jesus the Potter.     


      

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