Sts. Simon and Jude: Feasts, Fares and Fears

[by father Richard Sorfleet, St. John the Evangelist Mission]

​Simon and Jude, Apostles [October 28th.]

Feasts, Fares and Fears

The Feast of Saint Simon and Saint Jude affords the Church the occasion of addressing the socio-theological implications of the destruction of the city of Sodom as recounted in Genesis 19 thanks to the traditional epistle reading from the Letter of Jude verses 7 and 8.

Even with the new Common Lectionary now adopted by many mainline churches with its expanded coverage of Holy Scripture, to quote Vatican 2 In order that richer fare may be provided for the faithful and The treasures of the Bible are to be opened up more lavishly (as )more representative portion of the holy scriptures ...read to the people [Sacrosanctum Concilium] there are omissions and one is Genesis 19. The Sunday readings from the point of view of continuity follow the story of Abraham and the birth of Isaac, and thus omit the subsequent events after the Angels leave him at the oaks of Mamre and go on to Sodom. [Week 13 Year 1 of the Daily Eucharistic Lectionary does have as its first reading Gen 19 and then only dealing with Lot's flight from the city v15 to 29; thereby omitting the real issue at hand. Again, a strength of the traditional Sunday lectionary and the continuous chapter by chapter readings of the daily office over the course of the calendar year.]

Yet today both Church and State are more seized and in some quarters, obsessed by the story of Sodom, and uninterested in the grand sweep of God's speaking to mankind through the Prophets and the witness of the Apostles.

Simon the Zealot is remembered for being martyred by being sawn in two and Jude, martyred with an ax, as the patron of lost causes. And both are lost in the rush to the commercialized fear fest of the 31st.
Somewhere in that secular pumpkin patch the Church needs to get out the message on meaning of the two verses of Jude which describe more horror than all our Hallowe'ens ever combined.

7 In the same way, Sodom and Gomorrah and neighboring towns practiced immoral sexual relations and pursued other sexual urges. By undergoing the punishment of eternal fire, they serve as a warning.
8 Yet, even knowing this, these dreamers in the same way pollute themselves, reject authority, and slander the angels. CEB

Not just the what happened in Genesis 19, but the full context involving the why. An inclusive church should not fear teaching the tough stuff and addressing opinions and prejudices based on scriptural snippets and out of context quotes. The richer fare is not only the reading but the full interpretation as well.

Collect
Almighty God, which hast builded the congregation upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, Jesu Christ himself being the head corner-stone; grant us so to be joined together in unity of spirit by their doctrine, that we may be made an holy temple acceptable to thee; through Jesu Christ our Lord. Amen.
1552

Jude 1- 8
Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ and brother of James.
To those who are called, loved by God the Father and kept safe by Jesus Christ.
2 May you have more and more mercy, peace, and love.
3 Dear friends, I wanted very much to write to you concerning the salvation we share. Instead, I must write to urge you to fight for the faith delivered once and for all to God’s holy people. 4 Godless people have slipped in among you. They turn the grace of our God into unrestrained immorality and deny our only master and Lord, Jesus Christ. Judgment was passed against them a long time ago.
5 I want to remind you of something you already know very well. The Lord, who once saved a people out of Egypt, later destroyed those who didn’t maintain their faith. 6 I remind you too of the angels who didn’t keep their position of authority but deserted their own home. The Lord has kept them in eternal chains in the underworld until the judgment of the great day. 7 In the same way, Sodom and Gomorrah and neighboring towns practiced immoral sexual relations and pursued other sexual urges. By undergoing the punishment of eternal fire, they serve as a warning.
8 Yet, even knowing this, these dreamers in the same way pollute themselves, reject authority, and slander the angels. CEB

John 15: 17- 27
I give you these commandments so that you can love each other.
18 "If the world hates you, know that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. However, I have chosen you out of the world, and you don’t belong to the world. This is why the world hates you. 20 Remember what I told you, ‘Servants aren’t greater than their master.’ If the world harassed me, it will harass you too. If it kept my word, it will also keep yours. 21 The world will do all these things to you on account of my name, because it doesn’t know the one who sent me.
22 "If I hadn’t come and spoken to the people of this world, they wouldn’t be sinners. But now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Whoever hates me also hates the Father. 24 If I hadn’t done works among them that no one else had done, they wouldn’t be sinners. But now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. 25 This fulfills the word written in their Law, They hated me without a reason.26 "When the Companion comes, whom I will send from the Father—the Spirit of Truth who proceeds from the Father—he will testify about me. 27 You will testify too, because you have been with me from the beginning. CEB

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