Patrick Comerford
The celebrations of Epiphany-tide continue today (20 January 2023), and tomorrow is the Third Sunday of Epiphany (21 January 2024). Christmas is a season that lasts for 40 days that continues from Christmas Day (25 December) to Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation (2 February).
The Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today Richard Rolle of Hampole (1349), Spiritual Writer. Today is also the third day of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
Before today begins, I am taking some time for reflection, reading and prayer. My reflections each morning throughout the seven days of this week have included:
1, A reflection on one of the seven people who give their names to epistles in the New Testament;
2, the Gospel reading of the day;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.
7, Saint Jude:
Saint Paul does not give his own name to any of his letters, but seven people give their names to a total of seven of the letters or epistles in the New Testament: Timothy (I and II Timohty), Titus, Philemon, James, Peter (I and II Peter), John (I, II and III John), and Jude.
The Epistle of Jude is the second last book in the New Testament and in the Bible. It is traditionally attributed to Jude, brother of James the Just, and so a kinsman of Jesus too.br />
This letter consists of just one chapter with 25 verses, making it one of the shortest books in the Bible. The Letter to Philemon also has 25 verses, while three books are shorter: the Book of Obadiah with 21 verses, III John with 14 verses, and II John with 13 verses.
Saint Simon and Saint Jude, Apostles, are celebrated in the Church Calendar together on the same day, 28 October.
Many people may associate Saint Simon with the homeless and housing crisis and think of him as someone who cares for the homeless people on our streets. However, the Simon Community takes its name from Simon of Cyrene who helps Christ carry his cross on the way to Calvary and his Crucifixion. If you asked who Jude is, you might be told he is ‘Obscure’ – or that he is the Patron of Lost Causes.
These two are little known as apostles, without fame, and that obscurity is almost affirmed by the fact that they have to share one feast day and do not have their own separate, stand-alone celebrations in the Calendar of the Church.
In an age obsessed with reality television, the X-Factor, the Apprentice or celebrities who are celebrities – just because they are – Simon and Jude appear like a pair of misfits: we know little about their lives or how they lived them, they are hardly famous among the disciples, and they certainly are not celebrity apostles.
Simon and Jude are far down on the list of the Twelve Apostles, and their names are often confused or forgotten. In the New Testament lists of the Twelve (Matthew 10: 2-4; Mark 3: 16-19; Luke 6: 14-16; Acts 1: 13), they come in near the end, in tenth and eleventh places. Well, with Judas in twelfth place, they just about make it onto the ‘first eleven.’
The ninth name on the lists is James, the James who is remembered on 23 October. Judas or Jude is often referred to as ‘the brother of James,’ and this in turn leads to him being identified with the ‘brothers of the Lord.‘ So, Simon the Zealot, one of the original Twelve, and Jude or Judas of James, also one of the Twelve and author of the Letter of Jude, are celebrated together on the same day.
Simon is not mentioned by name in the New Testament except on these lists – after all, there is a better-known Simon than this Simon: there is Simon Peter. As for Jude, his name is so close to Judas – in fact, their names are the same (Ιούδας) – is it any wonder that he became known as the patron saint of lost causes? Trying to remember him might have been a lost cause.
After the Last Supper, Jude asked Christ why he chose to reveal himself only to the disciples, and received the reply: ‘Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to them and make our home with them’ (John 14: 22-23).
In his brief letter, Jude says he planned to write a different letter, but then heard of the misleading views of some false teachers. He makes a passionate plea to his readers to preserve the purity of the Christian faith and their good reputation.
His letter includes a memorable exhortation to ‘contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints’ (Jude 3), and ends with wonderful closing words: ‘Now to him who is able to keep you from falling, and to make you stand without blemish in the presence of his glory with rejoicing, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory, majesty, power, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen’ (Jude 24-25).
But after that, surprisingly, we know very little about the later apostolic missions of Simon and Jude, where they were missionaries or whether they were martyred.
In truth, we know very little about these two saints, bundled together at the end of a list, like two hopeless causes. There was no danger of them being servants who might want to be greater than their master (John 15: 20). All we can presume is that they laboured on, perhaps anonymously, in building up the Church.
But then the Church does not celebrate celebrities who are famous and public; we honour the saints who labour and whose labours are often hidden.
In the Gospel reading on the day Simon and Jude are celebrated (John 15: 17-27), the Apostles are warned about suffering the hatred of ‘the world.’ Later, as the Gospel was spread around the Mediterranean, isolated Christians may not have realised how quickly the Church was growing. In their persecutions and martyrdom, they may have felt forlorn and that Christianity was in danger of being a lost cause.
But in that Gospel reading, Christ encourages a beleaguered Church to see its afflictions and wounds as his own.
No matter how much we suffer, no matter how others may forget us, no matter how obscure we become, no matter how many people forget our names, no matter how often our faith and discipleship may appear to others to be lost causes, no matter how small our congregations may be, not matter how often we feel our parishes are isolated or even forgotten, we can be assured that we are no longer strangers and aliens, that we are citizens with the saints.
Mark 3: 20-21 (NRSVA):
[Then Jesus went home,] 20 and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. 21 When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, ‘He has gone out of his mind.’
Today’s Prayers (Saturday 20 January 2024):
The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), has been: ‘Climate Justice from Bangladesh perspective.’ This theme was introduced last Sunday by the Right Revd Shourabh Pholia, Bishop of Barishal Diocese, Church of Bangladesh.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (20 January 2024) invites us to pray in these words:
Help us O Lord to always uphold the principles of love, compassion, care and justice.
The Collect:
Almighty God,
in Christ you make all things new:
transform the poverty of our nature by the riches of your grace,
and in the renewal of our lives
make known your heavenly glory;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
God of glory,
you nourish us with your Word
who is the bread of life:
fill us with your Holy Spirit
that through us the light of your glory
may shine in all the world.
We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
Eternal Lord,
our beginning and our end:
bring us with the whole creation
to your glory, hidden through past ages
and made known
in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Collect on the Eve of Epiphany III:
Almighty God,
whose Son revealed in signs and miracles
the wonder of your saving presence:
renew your people with your heavenly grace,
and in all our weakness
sustain us by your mighty power;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Yesterday’s reflection (Saint John)
Continued tomorrow (the Wedding at Cana)
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
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