Oct 28 Jude the Apostle

Good Morning

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The Tate Street strip – A community not of students, though hundreds walk by during the week. Look at me and you’ll see someone who is not unlike most of the people who I’ve seen at Tate Street Coffee and at the NY Pizza. I admit that I’m more comfortable sitting in the EUC and on its patio than I am on the strip. Regression? Failure to grow up? Ora pro me.

St Jude elicited thoughts of St Rita and of St Monica. His bio blurb got me to read his letter and the USCCB’s letter on domestic violence. And I’ve written as I’ve read….


October 28

St Jude Thaddeus
Patron of Desperate Cases

(St Rita is also the Patron Saint of impossible cases. Her feast day is May 22nd.)

Googling (my edition of Word does not recognize this common gerund.) St Jude made it apparent that many/most bios begin by telling us who St Jude is not. How’d you like to be famous for not being Judas Iscariot? Did the early fathers put Jude’s letter into the canon in part to give the man his independent due?

St. Jude, known as Thaddaeus, was a brother of St. James the Less, and a relative of Our Saviour. He was a son of Cleophas, and Mary, sister to the Blessed Virgin. St. Jude was one of the 12 Apostles of Jesus.

St Jude Thaddaeus. Made me think of Thad Matta and the many good times I had in Columbus. Resurrected the feeloughts that running away from Columbus (the lien actually) was among the biggest mistakes I’ve ever made. The cost of that stupidity lingers. Running away is as bad as (worse than?) being an ostrich. I have a litany of runnings away. Escape is a powerfully reinforced maladaptive behavior. I advise against both escaping and avoiding. I know too much about the failures as well as the deceptive and costly successes of both. Ora pro me.

St Jude Thaddaeus, a brother of St. James the Less. I suppose it’s better to be known as an Apostle’s brother (and Jesus’ cousin,even if more than once removed) than NOT Judas Iscariot. But right up to the Garden at Gethsemane they were all a tightly knit band of men. Jesus called each of them. Jesus calls each of us, too. We have at least one thing in common with Judas. See how easy it is to be pulled away from Jude and to the infamous Judas? Come back with me to the holier man. (though, does Judas teach us more?)

Ancient writers tell us that Jude Thaddaeus preached the Gospel in Judea, Samaria, Idumaea, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Lybia. How would Jude respond to the Arab Spring? (His letter hints at how he might, personally, (as opposed to generally as a Catholic who walked(s) with Jesus.), respond to the horrors of “liberation”.

St. Jude Thaddaeus returned to Jerusalem in the year 62, after the martyrdom of his brother James, and assisted at the election of an other brother, St. Simeon, as Bishop of Jerusalem. Politics is family. We should, like my brother does, go all in for one another – not only in times of aspiration but also times of need. Deo Gratias.

St. Jude Thaddaeus is the author of the epistle to the Churches of the East, particularly the Jewish converts, directed against the heresies of the Simonians, Nicolaites, and Gnostics. My agnostic friends, take a gander at this letter.

Simonian? The Simonians used magic and theurgy (a system of beneficent magic practiced by the Egyptian Platonists and others; the working of a divine or supernatural agency in human affairs), incantations, and love-potions; they declared idolatry a matter of indifference that was neither good nor bad, proclaimed fornication to be perfect love, and led very disorderly, immoral lives. In general, they regarded nothing in itself as good or bad by nature. It was not good works that made men blessed, in the next world, but the grace bestowed by Simon and Helena on those who united with them.

Nicolaites? a sect mentioned in the Apocalypse (2:6-15) as existing in Ephesus, Pergamus, and other cities of Asia Minor, about the character and existence of which there is little certainty. Irenaeus (Against Heresies I.26.3 and III.11.1) discusses them but adds nothing to the Apocalypse except that "they lead lives of unrestrained indulgence."

Reading. Meditating. Wandering feeloughts. And learning something new each time, too. Simonians. Nicolaites. Theurgy. A blurb in Revelations. Starting with a bio and meandering across the Catholic landscape…. Join me? Take your own trip….

Jude Thaddaeus describes the heretics by many strong epithets and similes, and calls them wandering meteors which seem to blaze for a while, but set in eternal darkness. The source of their fall he points out by saying, they are murmurers, and walk after their own lusts; for being enslaved to pride, envy, the love of sensual pleasure, and other passions, and neglecting to crucify the desires of the flesh in their hearts, they were strangers to sincere humility, meekness, and interior peace. [Remember, my best writing is not mine at all. I am not using quote marks out of laziness not to hide my unabashed copying of other people’s work online. E.g., this paragraph and the next one and more are from Alban’s bio of Jude.]

This apostle exhorts the faithful to treat those who were fallen with tender compassion, making a difference between downright malice and weakness, and endeavouring by holy fear to save them, by plucking them as brands out of the fire of vice and heresy, and hating the very garment that is spotted with iniquity.

Jude Thaddaeus puts us in mind to have always before our eyes the great obligation we lie under of incessantly building up our spiritual edifice of charity, by praying in the Holy Ghost, growing in the love of God, and imploring his mercy through Christ.

This Apostle is said to have suffered martyrdom in Armenia, which was then subject to Persia.

Jude was the one who asked Jesus at the Last Supper why He would not manifest Himself to the whole world after His resurrection. (Jn 14:19-31. I suggest you put yourself at the Last Supper and get into the entire discourse that John gives us.)

In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me, because I live and you will live. [The world sees Jesus because we live in Him and He in us.]

20. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you.

21. Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him. [The impeccable logic of our faith. Love the law, “my [i.e., Jesus’] commandments.” Love one another as I have loved you. Love God with your whole heart and mind. Love your neighbor as yourself…. Love Jesus, i.e., GodFatherSonSpirit because He is One, and He loves us. We are capable of love only because God loves us always no matter what. He is the source of all love. The ones who love us, reveal themselves to us. If we love a person, we reveal ourselves to that person. Offering ourselves vulnerably, needing from our loved ones what God gives us – unconditional love: loving us no matter what.]

22. Judas, not the Iscariot,* said to him, “Master, [then] what happened that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?” [Put yourself at the Last Supper – not knowing that it is the last one: though it really wasn’t nor ever shall be a Last supper. Put yourself into the discussion of the men at Passover. What topic is on your mind? What questions would you throw out there to your friends? To your leader? Let these questions inform your prayer.]

23. Jesus answered and said to him, “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. [A straightforward description of how lovers operate, yes? If not keeping each other’s word, can you then be lovers?]

24. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me.

25. “I have told you this while I am with you.

26. The Advocate, the holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name—he will teach you everything and remind you of all that [I] told you. [Father Creator, Son Redeemer, Spirit Teacher. One Person. Our lover is creator, redeemer, and teacher. Let it be so.]

27. Peace* I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.

28. * You heard me tell you, ‘I am going away and I will come back to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father; for the Father is greater than I.

29. And now I have told you this before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe.

30. I will no longer speak much with you, for the ruler of the world* is coming. He has no power over me,

31. but the world must know that I love the Father and that I do just as the Father has commanded me. Get up, let us go.v [Jesus reiterates this message directly to His Father during his Agony in the Garden. Not my will but yours. “I love the Father” means that ‘I do the Father’s will,’ ‘do what the Father has commanded me.’ Get up, let’s go!]



Little else is known of his life. Legend claims that he visited Beirut and Edessa; possibly martyred with St. Simon in Persia.

Jude is invoked in desperate situations because his New Testament letter stresses that the faithful should persevere in the environment of harsh, difficult circumstances, just as their forefathers had done before them.

I like knowing why saints are picked to be patrons of whatever. I still don’t know why St Catherine is patroness of fire fighters. Though her being the patroness of there being no fires is why I call upon her to protect my niece. Ora cum me.


AMDG
wtn
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