Today is the feast day of Saints Simon and Jude, two disciples from Jesus’s inner circle. The Gospel reading from Luke 6 marks the moment when Jesus chooses these two and ten others from among his burgeoning following to form the Twelve, his core group whom he then names “apostles”: those sent on missions of sharing the good news with the full authority of Christ. In Luke’s second volume, the Acts of the Apostles, Simon, Jude, and the remaining leaders of the new Way begin their journeys (1:13).

Simon is identified in the Gospels as either a Zealot or Cananean, indicating his intense desire for Jewish liberation and self-determination (6:15; see also Matt 10:41; Mark 3:18). Jude is identified in the Gospels as either Judas or Thaddeus (see Matt 10:3; Mark 3:18). When he is called Judas, the evangelists are careful to differentiate him from Judas Iscariot who would betray Jesus (6:16; John 14:22; Acts 1:13). This is likely why the tradition remembers him simply as Jude. Other than this, little is known about these seemingly ordinary Jewish men who are chosen by Jesus for new vocations in apostleship. Later church traditions indicate that they went on separate missionary journeys initially, but reunited and worked together in Persia, where they were eventually martyred. For this reason, we celebrate their lives of faithful self-sacrifice together.

I’m intrigued by these people and the utter conviction they must have felt to leave the relative comfort and safety of their former lives behind and embrace new, dangerous vocations in parts unknown to share the good news of what God had done for all humankind through Jesus. The beautiful words of the Psalmist, however, proclaim God’s handiwork: that “through all the earth their voice resounds, and to the ends of the world, their message.” The letter to the Ephesians concurs that the community of the faithful is “built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone.” The risks they took, the courage they must have shown time and time again helped build the church we have today. I imagine we are all called to our own ways of contributing to shoring up that foundation, and thereby contributing to the church of tomorrow.

Back to the Gospel of Luke, I notice Jesus’s process. He spends time in solitude and prayerful communion with God. Thereafter, he returns to his community with renewed vigor and acts decisively. How might we live accordingly? We may not have a crew of willing disciples eagerly waiting on a mission, but we likely have something befitting our own callings. Our challenge is not to stop at prayer but, like Jesus, the Apostles, and the prophets before us, to allow that discernment in prayer to lead to active participation in our various communities. This is how we solidify the foundation of the community of faith: one stone at a time.

St. Jude is often called the patron saint of lost causes or desperate situations. Interestingly, he’s also the patron saint of hospitals and medical workers. These past years of pandemic alongside racially and ethnically charged violence have been devastating for all of us in multi-faceted ways. They have taken an excruciating toll on our healthcare professionals who likely often find themselves in the midst of seeming desperate situations. Maybe today we could put them and their particular callings at the forefront of our reflections, prayers, and actions.