Feast of Saints Simon and Jude, Apostles
A guest editorial once appeared in the Wall Street Journal telling of a struggle to get a little girl the education she needed. The editorial was written by a woman who had just graduated from a state university in Florida and was about to pursue a master’s degree. What’s remarkable is that the woman had been considered a hopeless cause after failing first and second grades. Then her godmother took her into her home and procured for her a state voucher to attend a private school. There the girl received the special attention she needed. Today we celebrate the saint who may be considered the young woman’s patron.
St. Jude is sometimes surnamed Thaddeus because he is not mentioned in Mark’s and Matthew’s gospel while Thaddeus is. But the most telling inference in the gospels of this saint is that his name appears at the end of the list of apostles except for Judas Iscariot. In other words, Jude is the last of the faithful apostles. Yet in the eyes of many Catholics around the world Jude is the most famous other than St. Peter. The reason for his popularity is that his being positioned in the last place has made him the patron of so-called “hopeless causes” – a sense which perhaps everyone has of her or his situation at one time or another.
In truth none of our causes is really hopeless. God has sent Jesus to help us. We need to trust in him, perhaps with the intercession of St. Jude. He will supply us with the opportunity to rise from desperation. He will make us well.
