28 October 1991
Rennes, France

My dear Sisters,

The two Apostles whose feast we are celebrating could be considered as the youngest in vocation of the community of the Apostles. Their names occur in the tenth and eleventh places in the list of Apostles which St. Luke presents in the Gospel to which we have just listened. Only Judas is placed after them, as he is also in the other Gospels. He is placed last in the list by the evangelists, because of his betrayal of Jesus.

We know almost nothing of Sts. Simon and Jude. Simon is called the zealot by St. Luke. It would seem to indicate that until Our Lord called him to be an Apostle, Simon was rather a fanatical person. All of us have met a religious fanatic some time in our lives. Usually, such persons are intolerant in their religious views and often are aggressive in the expression of their opinions. I doubt if Simon would be accepted by a bishop today as a candidate for the priesthood. Clearly Jesus Christ saw some special quality in his character that made him choose Simon to be one of His closest friends. Possibly, beneath the fanaticism Jesus saw a deep sincerity that would make his preaching effective, and for that reason and others, Jesus called him to be an Apostle.

When one reflects on the qualities and characters of the Twelve Apostles, one can easily imagine that it must not have been easy for Jesus to work with them. Simon was probably strong-headed and stubborn, as fanatics often are. Peter was impetuous, inclined to rush into action without reflecting on the consequences. James and John were called the sons of thunder. They were impatient, as we know, with the Samaritans who would not allow Jesus to pass through their town, and wanted to take revenge on them. All the Apostles would seem to have been ambitious and eager to get the top jobs in the kingdom of God. Judas was sly and certainly had not the virtue of simplicity. Thomas would seem to have been a man who did not trust the words of others easily. All Twelve could candidly admit that they were, to use an expression of St. Vincent, "a wretched Company."

When one lists the defects of character that we can see in the Apostles, we are inclined to say, "Surely Jesus Christ could have made a better choice when he was establishing what must be considered the first Christian Community." Yet, as St. Paul reminds us in the first reading, these were the men who were to become the foundation of the Church which will last until Jesus Christ comes again. As we see things, the foundations are weak, but the building that we know as the Church has lasted now almost two thousand years. God saw and still sees the weakness of the foundations, but He continues to work in and through them.

In our local communities we may find ourselves saying that if one or two members, or even more, were not in it, we would be much happier, and we would serve the poor better. That may be true. But God asks us to accept the community in which His Providence places us. It cannot be more difficult for us to accept our community as it is, than it was for Our Lord to accept the Apostles He chose. He was perfect, the Apostles were not. We are certainly not perfect, nor are those with whom we live. The work of God, however, must go on. We must avoid wasting time and energy wishing that our superiors would make a few changes in our community. Rather, let us work at convincing ourselves that God is at work, not only in us, but even in and through our defects and limitations and through the defects and limitations of others. Continually we must try to convince ourselves that Our Lord sees good qualities in others that may be hidden from us, just as He saw the good qualities that were hidden in Simon, the fanatic. "Give yourselves to God," said St. Vincent, "to practice those two beautiful virtues of courtesy and forbearance.... Give yourselves to God to render yourselves conformable, as far as possible, to your Spouse by the practice of His virtues, so that the daughters may bear some relation to their Father. You call yourselves Daughters of Charity, that is to say, daughters of God." (Conf. Eng. ed., 30 May 1658, pp. 1058-59).

My dear Sisters, I have said nothing about St. Jude. He certainly has many clients who pray to him, for he is known--and I do not know how he got the title--as Patron of Hopeless Cases. During the Last Supper he asked Our Lord why He showed Himself to the Twelve and not to the world (Jn 14:22). That question would seem to indicate that he was a man who wanted to share with others what he had received from God. Our Lord rewarded St. Jude by answering his question with a magnificent revelation on what each of us is already sharing in the intimacy of our Christian beings: "Jesus answered him: 'If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him. We will come to him and establish our home in him.'" (Ibid., v. 23). Could anyone ever consider himself to be a "hopeless case" in the light of that assurance and of that promise?