Commentary
Monday, 10/28/2019, Feast of Saints Simon & Jude the Apostles
Built into a Dwelling Place of God
First Reading Commentary: Ephesians 2:19-22
Paul tells us that Jesus is the cornerstone of the Church and that the Apostles make up the foundation and that we are all members. Christ instituted the Church when He said to Peter, “Upon this rock, I will build my church.” Christ did not build His Church on an idea or astrological philosophy or physical symbol. He built the Church on human beings with Peter as the Rock. That is one reason why the Church is the people.
The religion associated with the Church (Catholicism) is the way that the people choose to profess their faith in Christ. The buildings are a place for the people to come together and profess their faith as one. The Church has an institution which is headed by the Pope, (Pope Francis), who is the successor to Peter, and located in Rome as the Bishop of Rome. But the Church itself; is the people.
The Church would later split into many denominations and Non-Catholic believers in Christ are Christian. Catholics consider themselves to be Christian but the Catholic Church does not consider itself to be a denomination because all Non-Catholic religions, whether directly or indirectly, came from Catholicism.
Paul tells us that the Church is built upon the foundation of the Apostles because they are the people who travelled with Christ and took the Gospel to the people after the Ascension of Christ who instructed the Apostles to go and teach all nations. Christ gave that instruction to the Apostles because the Church is for everyone and that is because we are all God’s children.
Paul tells us that through Christ, the whole structure is held together. This means that the Church is all about Christ and because Christ is the second person of the Trinity, the Church is all about God. It is about professing God’s Word, living by God’s commandments, striving to carry out God’s Will giving all praise and glory to God and receiving God’s grace through the sacraments.
It is the Mystical Body of Christ that Paul is talking about when he says that the structure grows into a temple sacred to the Lord and that in Him; we are being built into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. Because the Church is the people, our bodies are temples and sacred to the Lord. Because God dwells within His temple, God dwells within us and each of us is a part of the Mystical Body. Therefore, when we commit sins of impurity, we place that which is impure into God’s temple and that is a grave sin. Likewise, when we commit murder or an act against the right to life, we destroy a temple and a part of the Mystical Body. It is for this reason that abortion by choice can never be justified.
Christ said that whatever we do for the least of His brethren, we do for Him. Again, this is because Christ is in all of us. Therefore, whenever we treat someone in a bad way, we are treating Christ in a bad way. It is important to obey the Second Greatest Commandment (love thy neighbor as thyself) not because Christ told us to but because when we fail to love our neighbor as ourselves, we fail to love Christ.
The Choosing
Gospel Commentary: Luke 6:12-16
Before Jesus chose His Apostles, He went up to the mountain and spent the night in prayer. We know that Jesus prayed to the Father many times. Consider this: If spending time in prayer was important to Jesus, it should be important to us. The gospel does not tell us what Jesus’ intention was but it is obvious that He and the Father consulted with each other about who the Apostles would be. In so doing, Jesus prayed for all of us since the Apostles would have the mission of taking His Word to “all nations.”
There are two things that I want to say about the Apostles in this commentary. First, they were willing followers of Jesus. They did not have to accept their calling but they did. None of them knew what they were getting themselves into at the time but all of them had enough faith in Jesus to become His Apostles and all of them except for Judas would dedicate their lives to building the Church. Most of them would even give their lives for the sake of following Jesus’ commands and spreading the Word. When we think of these things, we have to ask ourselves how much we are willing to do to follow Jesus and spread God’s Word.
Second, none of the Apostles were perfect. When we consider this, we always think first about Judas. But all of the Apostles had their shortcomings. Even Peter, the Rock, denied Christ three times after He was arrested. Jesus had to teach them and explain things to them over and over again. Like all of us, the Apostles often times had their thoughts taken over by worldly thoughts as Jesus was trying to get them to step out of the box so that they could understand the Kingdom which is not of this world. They could not preach about the Kingdom if they had no concept of the Kingdom and Jesus took patience in teaching them. There were times when He had to correct them and even scold them. But in the end, the Apostles stood up to the task, kept the faith and completed their mission.
Yes, they were quite the crowd but it goes to show that God has a plan for each of us and will use us to carry out His plan if we will allow Him to. The Apostles did more than take the Gospel to the world and build the Church. They are a source of inspiration for all of us. Their imperfections did not hold them back. Their faith was challenged but they kept the faith. The Apostles are some of the best examples proving that when the Spirit bestows His gifts us, as He did to the Apostles on Pentecost, nothing is impossible.
Today, we celebrate the feast day of two of the Apostles, Simon and Jude who was called Thaddeus. As we honor them for their contribution to the Church let us remember that all of the Apostles were great men, not because of what they did, but because like Mary, they said, “Yes.”
