Simon was  called “the Zealot.”

he was supposedly martyred by being cut in half with a saw.

 

Jude is the patron saint of hopeless cases.

He was a brother of St. James the Lesser, and a relative of Jesus.

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊

Ephesians 2:19-22

 Now you are no longer

Strangers or guests, but fellow citizens of the holy people: you are of the household of God. You are the house whose foundations are the apostles and proph­­­ets, and whose cornerstone is Christ Jesus. 

In him the whole structure is joined together and rises to be a holy temple in the Lord. In him you too are being built to become the spiritual sanctuary of God.

 

Ps 19:2-3, 4-5

Their message goes out through all the earth.

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊ 

Luke 6:12-16

At this time Jesus went out into the hills to pray, spending the whole night in prayer with God. When day came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them whom he called apostles: 

Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew, James and John; Philip and Bartho­lo­mew; Matthew and Thomas; James son of Alpheus and Simon called the Zealot; Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who would be the traitor.

 

Gospel Reflection：

Raising the Humble

Fr. James Martin, in his book My Life with the Saints, reveals that as a kid, he learned that St. Jude was the patron saint of hopeless cases. He managed to procure a little statue of the saint. Whenever his prayers to God failed, he would turn to St. Jude.

In his little mind he reasoned that if God could not answer prayer, it must be a hopeless case; and St. Jude, being patron of hopeless cases, must surely be more powerful than God and would get things done.

Though the logic was pretty off the mark, St. Jude does seem to be a powerful intercessor before God, given his popularity. Yet in the gospels, he passes off as pretty ordinary. He is not in the closest circle of Christ; nor is he seen doing anything remarkable.

One may consider him the “least” of the disciples. But how powerful and popular intercessors he has become for us! God does raise the lowly and the humble, and make the last first.