THE WORD AND THE SAINT
Ephesians 2: 19-22; Luke 6: 12 -16
We remember the apostles Simon the zealot and Jude son of James, also called Jude Thadeus. These apostles have become relatively less known, they say, because of the confusion with their names. Simon was confused with Simon Peter and so lost his prominence. Judas confused with Judas Iscariot and so became infamous. Reflecting on this fact in tradition, one could be struck by the opening prayer prescribed for the Eucharist today, which goes thus:
The apostles were all about acknowledging God's name, not their own! Whether Simon or Jude, or any other apostle, they were all out to spread the Good News and give glory to God, building up the Body of Christ on earth: the People of God.
Building up is our work, yes, but we are very much part of the building itself. We are the building, and we are building ourselves up together to give glory to the name of the Lord. And in this process, we are called to beware of the name game that is going rampant these days: that is, being divided among ourselves under so many names and calling names at each other, maligning each others' names and playing the dirty worldly name game! That is not very becoming of that One Name we have on earth by which we could al be saved, the most sweet and glorious name of Jesus. The division in the Church is the greatest of all scandals against the Gospel.