VATICAN - Pope Benedict XVI’s teaching at the Wednesday Audience: Simon the Cananaean and Juda Thaddaeus “help us rediscover again and again the beauty of the Christian faith and never tire of living it and bearing strong and serene witness to it”

Thursday, 12 October 2006

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - The apostles Simon the Cananaean and Juda Thaddaeus were the subject of the Pope’s reflection during the weekly audience in St Peter’s Square on Wednesday 11 October where thousands of victors from all over the world had gathered to see and listen to the Holy Father. “We will consider them together - the Pope said -, not only because in the lists of the Twelve they are always listed together, and also because information about them is scarce”.
Simon is referred to as ‘the Cananaean’ or "Zealot", names which have the same meaning in Hebrew: "jealous or passionate". This can be said both of God, since he is jealous of his chosen people, and of those who serve God with burning zeal. Simon therefore, the Pope explained, although not actually a member of the nationalist movement of the Zealots, was known for “passionate attachment to his Jewish identity, therefore for God, for God’s people and for God’s Law”. “Simon is quite the opposite to Matthew who, on the contrary, being a publican came from an activity considered impure. An evident sign that Jesus calls his disciples and collaborators from all different social and religious milieus, without exclusion”. Pope Benedict XVI then pointed out that although the followers of Jesus were so different they overcame difficulties in the company of Jesus “in whom they were united”, and this is a lesson for us too, “often inclined to stress differences and contrapositions, forgetting that in Jesus Christ we are given the strength to recompose our conflicts. We should keep in mind that the group of the Twelve is the pre-figuration of the Church, where there is space for all charisma, peoples and races, all human qualities which find their composition and their unity in communion with Jesus”.
Little is said about Jude Thaddaeus. St John the evangelist records a question the apostle posed to Jesus at the Last Supper: “Lord, how is it possible that you reveal yourself to us and not to the world?”. The reply of Jesus is mysterious and profound: "Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him”. “This means the Risen Lord must be seen and perceived also with the heart - the Pope said -, so that God may make his dwelling with us. The Lord does not appear as a thing. He desires to enter our life so his is a revelation which implicates and presumes our open heart. Only in this way can we see the Risen Lord”. To Jude Thaddaeus is attributed the paternity of a New Testament Letter in which he obviously intends “to tell Christians to be on guard with regard to those who use God’s grace as a pretext to excuse their dissolute way of life and to mislead others with unacceptable teachings causing division within the Church”.
The Holy Father said “perhaps today we are unaccustomed to using such polemical language”, nevertheless it is important “preserve the identity of our faith”. The path of indulgence and dialogue undertaking since Vatican II “must certainly be continued with firm perseverance”, the Pope continued but “this must not make us neglect the duty to rethink and underline just as strongly the main lines of our Christian identity which cannot be renounced. On the other hand it is necessary to realise that this identity demands strength, clarity and courage in the face of the contradictions of the world in which we live”.
From his Letter we see that Jude Thaddaeus lived his faith to the full, “may both Simon the Cananaean and Jude Thaddaeus help us rediscover again and again the beauty of the Christian faith and never tire of living it and bearing strong and serene witness to it.” (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 12/10/2006, righe 43, parole 631)


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