The following paragraph is taken from the "Catholic Almanac"
Jude Thaddeus: One of the Catholic Epistles, the shortest, bears his name; various traditions say he preached the Gospel in Mesopotamia, Persia and elsewhere, and was martyred; in art, is depicted with a halberd, the instrument of his death; Oct 28 (Roman Rite), June 19th (Byzantine Rite).
The below paragraph is take from Father Foley, O.F.M. in his book on the "Saint of the Day."
Jude is so named by Luke and Acts. Matthew and Mark called him Thaddeus. He is not mentioned elsewhere in the Gospels, except, of course, where all the apostles are referred to. Scholars hold that he is not the author of the epistle. Actually, Jude had the same names as Judas Iscariot. Evidently because of the disgrace of that name, it was shortened to "Jude" in English.
Taken from author Otto Hophan's book, "The Apostle". This book is listed in the source page on the site:http://www.doctorsofthecatholic.com
Chapter TenThe Apostle Jude Thaddeus had a name that was as famous and honorable in his day as the name Judas is infamous and heinous today. Many great men of the Old Testment were named Judas, or Judah. The two most distinguished were Judah, one of the sons of Jacob and the father of the tribe of Juda, and Judas Maccabaeus, the heroic Jewish warrior who fought against the Syrians. Many traits of these two men of the Chosen People were reflected in the apostle Jude. Because these names, however, are clouded with so much secrecy and mystery, one is almost forced to conclude that they inevitably stamped on their bearers characters as unchallengeable as the preconceived ideas promulgated in the heated arguments of biased and unlettered people.
When Judah, the son of Jacob, was born, his pious mother joyfully called out, "'Now will I praise the Lord.' And for this she called him Juda." Although he was not the oldest son of Jacob, he had a leading position among his brothers-thanks to his somewhat permanently predetermined character. His part, however, in the story of his brother Joseph in Egypt was a laudable exception. Here he bravely and staunchly opposed the demand of the others. Instead of fratricide, he proposed the lesser of two evils-to sell his brother to Madianite merchants for twenty pieces of silver.
Later there was to be another Judas who received silver for the life of another-the betrayer, Judas Iscariot. The silver pieces numbered thirty.
The dying patriarch Jacob marked his son Judah as the forefather of the Messias with this blessing:Juda, thee shall thy brethren praise. thy hands shall be on the necks of thy enemies: the sons of thy father shall bow down to thee. Juda is a lion's whelp: to the prey, my son, thou are gone up. Resting thou has couched as a lion, and as a lioness. Who shall rouse him? The sceptre shall not be taken away from Juda, nor a ruler from his thigh, till he come that is to be sent: and he shall be the expectation of nations.
These words of power and valor prophetically point also, as it were, to the apostle Jude Thaddeus whose whole life was centered on them
Also powerful and important was the other great Judas of the Old Testament, the third son of Mathathias. Because of his heroic deeds, by which he distinguished himself in the Jewish struggle in the second century before Christ to maintain their religious freedom, he was surnamed Maccabaeus. (This word probably comes from the Aramaic maqqaba, which means "hammer"-signifying the vigor of his forecful attacks against the Syrians.) In glorious battles he conquered the huge armies of the godless King Antiochus IV, which were led by the commanders, generals, and governors, Nicanor, Gorgias, Timotheus, Bacchides, and Lysias. He successfully took possession of the Holy City, Jerusalem, after battling the hostile pagan occupation forces. Sacrifice and worship to the God of Israel, as the Law prescribed, were returned to the purified and reconsecrated temple.
The heroic deeds of this Judas remained vivid in the memory of the Jewish people. At home Jude Thaddeus heard his father and grandfather recounting the feasts of this great warrior. And in the synagogue he quietly listened on many Sabbaths to sermons inspired by the life and religion of this national hero. When the apostle later found himself in difficult situations, he could look back on his ideal. Then was Jude pround of his name, which so many brave and courageous men before him had borne. Here was his pattern, his blueprint. He also would be a "lion's whelp" and a "Maccabaean," a "hammer" for his age.
This noble name, however, was sadly spotted and stained by another Judas, also an apostle, the betrayer of Christ. There was no hope of ever having the name vindicated again. His heinous and ignominious crime was too deeply impressed on this name, and so corroded it, that they have never been separated, not even after many centuries. They are doomed to be as one until the end of time. No longer does Judas mean "I will praise the Lord," as Lia joyfully called out, but rather "I have sold the Lord for thirty pieces of silver," as Judas dispairingly moaned. No Christian is willing to bear the name of Judas, for even today the name bears a curse.
Both Jude Thaddeus and Judas Iscariot were apostles of Christ. Twice St Luke named them next to each other. When the Lord called "Judah," did both turn to look? But perhaps there was a slightly distinguishable tone in the Master's voice. When the unbelievable news spread like wildfire on Good Friday-the apostle "Judah" betrayed the Messias and then hanged himself-many may have thought that Jude Thaddeus was the guilt one.
The betrayer had also disgraced the name of Judas Maccabaeus. As an atonement for this offense, Catholic people since the eighteenth century have devoutly honored the holy namesake of this unfortunate betrayer with a special trust. The apostle Jude Thaddeus has become the patron of Christians troubled with cares and anxieties, patron of Christians who are on the verge of despair.
Jude, the Brother of the Lord
Even in the Gospels the evangelists were embarrassed to mention the name of Judas. Their prejudice is quite apparent. In the one passage in which St John spoke of Thaddeus, he hurried over the name, and was quick to add, "Judas, not the Iscariot... Even more striking is the fact that both Matthew and Mark never mentioned the full name of this apostle, Jude Thaddeus, but merely called him by his surname, Thaddeus. One can correctly assume that the evangelists wanted to reestablish a good name for this apostle among his companions and especially among the people. By using only his surname, they could remove any stigma his name might have given him.
St. Luke was the first to mention this apostle by his proper name, but not without affixing a light to this dark and gloom name: "Judas Jacobi"-literally, "Jude of James." At first one might think that Jude was the son of James, but, as the English translation of this passage show, he was "Jude, the brother of James." That these two were brothers is shown in several passages in Holy Scripture. Both Matthew and Luke referred to them as brothers, and Jude himself wrote in the beginning of his Epistle that he was "the brother of James."
This James, whom St. Luke, in his two list of the apostles, was quick to distinguish from Judas Iscariot, must have been a well-known Christian and a highly esteemed person. In view of the fact that James the Great was already dead for twenty years, it is not plausible to maintain that it was he who was meant. In support of this, it should be noted that previously James the Great was mentioned only as the brother of John, never as the brother of Jude. Jude Thaddeus was the brother of James the Less, the bishop of Jerusalem. It is also noteworthy that the evangelists Matthew and Mark placed James the Less and Thaddeus next to each other in their lists of the apostles. At the same time, the question whether James and Jude were blood brothers or only brothers in the sense of cousins cannot be answered with certitude and must be left unsolved. In any case, this famous James helped to brighten the gloom name of Jude.
There was another ray of light that fell upon this good Jude, who had the misfortune of sharing the same name with the betrayer of Christ. He was not only the brother of the distinguished James, but also a "brother" of the Lord Himself. The Nazarenes asked about Jesus, " 'Is not this the carpenter...the brother of James...(and) Jude?'" It is not improper to think that this apostle played and prayed with Jesus in the happy days of their youth. They might well have run and rambled together on the way to the great feasts in Jerusalem. Full of fear, Mary looked for the lost, twelve-year-old Jesus, and she may have first sought out His cousins, Jude and James-where and when had they seen Him last; where and when had they last been together? This apostle, too, like James, was closely related to Jesus. In his Epistle he called himself "the brother of James," but, with shy reserve, not brother of the Lord, but "servant of Jesus Christ."
Jude, the Farmer
Jude Thaddeus was married before he was called by Christ. According to an observation of Nicephorus Callistus, which Eusebius quoted in his history of the Church, this apostle was supposedly the bridegroom at the marriage feast at Cana. But this statement is certainly questionable, even though it explains very well the presence of Jesus and His mother at the wedding banquet.They were showing a great respect to this relative by attending and sharing with him the joy of the occasion.
Also in the work of Eusebius the report about the two grandsons of Jude, Zoker and James, whom Domitian had summoned to Rome to stand trial, was recorded in a section concerning James the Less. They lived as simple farmers on the arable land of Palestine, and had to pay the emperor a thousand denarii as revenue from the yields and profits of their small nine and a half acres. Their grandfather, Jude Thaddeus, certainly may have labored on this land. His Epistle, like that of his brother James, is the writing of a farmer. It is forcible, almost rough, neither fine nor delicate, with images from scenes of life in the country. He compared heretical and false teachers with men who lead themselves to pasture-"banqueting together without fear, looking after themselves"-and with "clouds without water, carried about by the winds," and with "trees in the fall, unfruitful, twice dead, uprooted."
Jude was a farmer. Before he, as an apostle, sowed the seed of the word of God over the wide spaces of the earth, he, as a farmer, spread the grains of barley and corn on the soil of the land laid open by a plough. How well he could understand the following parables of Christ!
"Behold, the sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside, and the birds came and ate them up. And other seeds fell upon rocky ground, where they had not much earth; and they sprang up at once, because they had no depth of earth; but when the sun rose were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. And other seeds fell among thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked them. And other seeds fell upon good ground, and yielded fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, and some thirtyfold."
"The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his fied; but while men were asleep, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. And when the blade sprang up and brought forth fruit, then the weeds appeared as well. And the servants of the householder came and said to him, 'Sir, didst thou not sow good seed in the field? How then does it have weeds?' He said to them, 'An enemy has done this.' And the servants said to him, 'Wilt thou have us go and gather them up?' 'No' he said, 'lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will say to the reapers: Gather up first the weeds, and bind them in bundles to burn; but the wheat gather into my barn.'"
"The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field. This indeed is the smallest of all the seeds; but when it grows up it is larger than any herb and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and dwell in its branches."
"Thus is the kingdom of God, as though a man should cast seed into the earth, then sleep and rise, night and day, and the seed should sprout and grow without his knowing it. For of itself the earth bears the crop, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the fruit is ripe, immediately he puts in the sick because the harvest has come."In the fields of His cousins, our Lord had been able to observe all of this.
In November, after the torrents of the first early rains had fallen, Jude harnessed his strong oxen and slow donkeys to plough the packed soil and furrow the old earth new and black for the bright seeds of corn and barley.
In February, when the sun was beginning to beat down, he wound his way through the rowed vineyards, cutting away the wild, pink shoots, the barren, blossomless sprigs and the dead, dry twigs, so that the good vines might bring forth more fruit.
In March, when an early spring parch began to show yellow and age the earth, he patiently awaited the refreshing rains that tasseled the green cornstalks, filled the ears, and hardened the barley hulls.
In April, in the beautiful but short-lived spring, he planted his garden with squash, pumpkins, cucumbers, beans, turnips, onions, garlic, leek, anise, mint, and caraway.
In May, when the feeding grain was low, he began to cut out the thin and stubby cornstalks at the ends of the rows and sides of the fields for feed; and he began to cut and bind the tanned grain for threshing, and later winnowed it with huge, flat scoop shovels in the evening wind that threw the dusty chaff and husks to the air.
In June, after the grain was harvested and the dead fields were gleaned by the poor, he had the sheep to pen and shear and brand before letting them run, skinny, without their wool, back to the hills.
In August, when the sun was losing its heat, he toiled in the vineyards, snapping off the purple bunchs of grapes, packed them into the presses and drew off the red blood of the grapes, which was soon to ferment into dark, autumn wine.
And in September, when evenings grew redder, the figs shriveled ripe and the olives, the last fruits to cling to life, died black to yield a soft oil from the presses.
Then the farmer Jude could repair his sheds and sharpen his tools. And he could rest.
So the year was filled with toil and worry. The rain and the sun were not always right, and Jude was not a rich farmer. His grandsons, Zoker and James, honest and loyal, stood before Domitian on trial because the thousand denarii which their household earned were spent for their own livelihood and taxes. The taxes were heavy. There were times when the farmer was obliged to deliver over a third of his harvest in corn and wine and oil, and at times it was as much as a half. Herod Antipas, in whose service Matthew, a companion of Judas Iscariot, worked as a tax-collector, every year drew from his comparatively small tetrarchy thousands of dollars, then worth five times more than money today.
To the Romans, the Jews had to pay a land-tax and a personal tax. Ten years before Christ entered his public life, Jewish delegates had gone to Rome to ask for an alleviation of this heavy taxation. The people were continually pressed by the ever-increasing demand for more money, with which the select few could glitter with rich splendor and lie drunken and basely debauched. The grandiose and lavish edifice of the ambitious Herodian family gorged down huge sums, which were bought with the sweat and blood of the poor. The simple farmer Jude certainly nodded his approval of the Lord's words when He warned the rich, "'But woe to you rich! for you are now having your comfort.
Yet Jude Thaddeus was satisfied and happy in his home on the land. Conscientiously he conformed to his duty to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem three times a year for Easter, Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles. But he was only too glad to return to his own village in Galilee. Perhaps it was Cana, or it could even have been Nazareth. In the Holy City there was too much noise and bustle. The crowds were large and impatient; the market place was dirty and confusing. There was no quiet. The world was filling itself and theaters, race tracks, and arenas, with lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, desires of worldly pleasure. If only God were willing that he would not have to go out into the world!
Jude wanted to live in his own small and quiet village and with his own family. Here his farm blossomed and flourished. Here his wife was contented and his children played. And yet, the day was near when he was to leave his loved family, to give up his peaceful home, and to choose instead the homelessness of the streets. This was an heroic sacrifice for a farmer. Jude Thaddeus was a courageous man. When he was called to follow the Lord as an apostle, to leave his wife and children, his home and fields, he gave his commitment courageously and went out to be a messenger of the kingdom of God.
Jude, the Courageous
At first glance, it is difficult to see, from Holy Scripture, how the apostle Jude Thaddeus was a bold hero. Neither the Gospels nor the Acts fo the Apostles mention anything about him other than his name-with the exception of one short sentence in the Fourth Gospel. Yet this name is rich with information, full of meaning, and opens the door to an insight into the apostle's personality. The evangelists Matthew and Mark called Jude by his surname, but this was not given to him by the Lord, as Simon Peter and the Sons of Thunder received theirs at their calling to the apostolate. Jude was much younger when he was first given a descriptive surname. His parents and close friends called him "Thaddeus," or as some older manuscripts have recorded it, "Lebbeus."
Thaddeus and Lebbeus actually have the same connotation. Both names are derived from Aramaic words: Thaddeus from "thad," meaning bosom," and Lebbeus from "leb," meaning "heart." His name, therefore, means "the courageous," "the stouthearted, " "the bold." Certain texts of the Gospels gave the apostle all three names: Jude Thaddeus Lebbeus. Thus St. Jerome called him "trinomius," the trinomial one. This surname was meant first of all to distinguish Jude from Judas Iscariot; the same time it reveals the apostle's nature. For had there been no basis for it, Jude would not have been given the honorary title Thaddeus, the "bold and daring one."
Courage, and even audacity, was certainly a characteristic peculiar to the Galilean individuality. A Roman philosopher admired this people's fearlessness. They defied all tyrants and stauchly adhered to their beliefs. There is an old saying that with the Judeans money came before honor, and with the Galileans honor came before money. This proverb gives a glimpse of the subtle difference between Jude Thaddeus and Judas Iscariot, the first slight divergence in the path that eventually led the two to such widely separated ends. The traitorous Judas, very reserved and quiet about his Judean origin, placed money before his ideal. The courageous Jude, from Galilee, placed faithfulness and honor before pieces of silver. He was so brave that his bravery must have astonished even the Galileans, for they called him simply Thaddeus, the courageous one. He was the bravest of the brave! And this name followed him into the lists of the apostles in Sacred Scripture.
The Epistle of St Jude is a lasting proof that this apostle was what his name signified. He had an energetic, valiant, and spirited personality. He was vigorous and stouthearted, a credit and an honor to his patrons, the father of the tribe of Juda and the Maccabean warrior. In the baptistry at Ravenna, Italy, a mosaic from the fifth century has been preserved, which reproduced an interpretation of the early Christian life surrounding this apostle. In this portrayal Jude Thaddeus looks rather tense and taut, full of energy and determination.
How the eyes of Thaddeus must have flashed when the Lord, foretelling opposition, spoke of strength and courage:
"Behold, I am sending you forth like sheep in the midst of wolves. Be therefore wise as serpents, and guileless as doves. But beware of men; for they will deliver you up to councils, and scourge you in their synagogues, and you will be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a witness to them and to the Gentiles...
"Therefore, do not be afraid of them. For there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, and nothing hidden that will not be made known. What I tell you in darkness, speak it in the light; and what you hear whispered, preach it on the housetops. And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather be afraid of him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell...
"Do not think that I came to send peace upon earth; I have come to bring a sword, not peace... He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses life for my sake, will find it."This one apostle, Jude Thaddeus, radically threw all timidity aside and ignored the defamation aimed at Christianity as if it were a transaction for people with affected natures, for good-for-nothings, for men neither worthy nor capable of life. Christ had called to follow Him a man who was bold and brave, whose name was Thaddeus.
But Jude Thaddeus was not the only aposle with such a nature. There were James and John, whom Christ named "Boanerges," Sons of Thunder. There was Simon Peter, whom He made the "rock" of His Church. There was the other Simon, who was called the "Zealot". And all were men, who sacrificed totally, completely,and suffered more than seemed humanly possible. Christ demanded strong men; He was able to endow weak men with strong natures through graces. The strong could feel themselves touched by Christ; the weak could feel themselves drawn to Him. The power of Jesus is so great that He can perfect the strong as well as the weak.
Holy Scripture has not disclosed any heroic acts which might have borne out the significance of his renowned name, not burdens which he might have carried with a brave heart, no dangers and storms against which he showed a bold front. Still, one is inclined to assume that Jude earned his reputation for courage in the resistance movement of his country. At the time of Christ, Galilee stirred with the fever of political unrest. The Galileans, like growling lions, like oxen enslaved in harnesses, bore the yoke of the whipping brutality of the Roman occupation forces. Jewish fanatics, the Zealots, the "Maquis"-French guerrilla fighters against Hilter's Nazis-of their age, as it were, sought with wild wrath to provide themselves with a violent self-defense. They annoyed and harassed the Romans whenever and wherever and however they could. They also took revenge on their own people who were deserters and traitors. These volunteer fighters constantly attacked, now here, then there, not everywhere, then nowhere. They were not easily captured.
One of the twelve apostles, Simon, probably a brother of Jude Thaddeus, was surnamed "the Zealot." It is possible that Jude, too, took part in this national movement. Perhaps he also lived through may sudden surprise attacks-the blitzkriegs of the first century-that could have cost him his life, had he been captured. Maybe it was in this resistance that he acquired his name, Thaddeus, the bold. Frequently, early commentators of Scripture called Jude "the Zealot," too. Here he may have been confused with his brother, Simon, but this confusion may also have had a real basis.
Jesus had taken a certain risk in calling such men into the circle of the Twelve, dynamic men with explosive characters, a Jude Thaddeus, a Simon Zealot. But it was just such natures that He needed for the building of His heavenly kingdom on earth. He wanted courageous heroes, holy adventurers, undaunted warriors, brave soldiers of God. Thaddeus and Simon had the same good intentions that all the other apostles had, but both also had given a false interpretation to the coming Messianic kingdom. For the the Messias was the long-awaited liberator of an oppressed race, the glorious liberator from the foreign, Roman domination. Our Lord did not condemn His disciples for their erroneous ideas nor repudiate their hope, but rather He encouraged them while perfecting their own knowledge and, above all, redirecting their purposes.
The Gospels record only one speech made by "Judas, not the Iscariot." Our Lord's answer accompanied the apostle's question. This passage speaks significantly of the kingdom of God. It was Thursday evening, during the Last Supper. Jesus was speaking to His disciples to comfort them, for they were sad when He spoke of leaving them. He spoke of a lasting and permanent unity with them. " 'I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world no longer sees me. But you see me, for I live and you shall live.'" The world! You! The flood of Christ's discourse rushed on, but Jude Thaddeus stopped listening. He went back and pondered on these mysterious words. He could not understand. And after awhile, he interrupted, "'Lord, how is it that thou art about to manifest thyself to us, and not to the world:?'"
Although these are the only words of Jude which have been recorded in the Gospels, nevertheless they flash like lightning from the depths of his heart and soul, and for a brief second they lighted the true faith of this almost unknown apostle. Jude Thaddeus was inspired by Christ, enraptured, filled with enthusiasm. He was impatient and impetuous to see Christ's "manifestation." And therefore it was a tormenting enigma to him, a bitter disappointment, that the Lord should manifest Himself only to the small circle of the Twelve, only "to us," and not to the public, "to the world."
Five days before this, on Palm Sunday, he found it unbelievable and unintelligible that Jesus should enter Jerusalem and receive such a magnificent welcome worthy only of a national hero, and still not take command of the city. How this Jude of the New Testament burned to lay "his hands on the necks of his enemies," as the Patriarch Jacob had prophesied of the father of the tribe of Juda! How he burned to be able to purge the Holy City of the pagan enemies, as Judas Maccabaeus had done, and to give it back to the God of Israel.
Why do You not manifest Yourself to the whole world? This impatient question is approriately placed side by side with the demand of the "brethren of Jesus," of whom Jude Thaddeus was one, which was indignantly thrust upon the Lord before the Feast of Tabernacles:
"Leave here (from this forlorn corner of Galilee) and go into Judea that thy disciples also may see the works that thou dost; for no one does a thing in secret if he wants to be publicly known. If thou dost these things, manifest thyself to the world."
That Jesus did not immediately make manifest His divine dignity and majesty, that He did not annihilate His enemies with one stroke of the hand, that He did not establish a vast and powerful kingdom on earth, all this ran against the concepts of the bold and daring Jude. He could not understand. And this was the question, the only question, in the mind of the apostle Thaddeus.
As Jesus continued to speak at the Last Supper, after Jude had interrupted, it seems He neither answered nor even referred to the apostle's questioning objection:
"If anyone love me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him. He who does not love me does not keep my words.
And yet, in the depths of this answer lies the solution to the question that worried and tormented this Galilean farmer who was following Christ. The courageous Jude Thaddeus longed for the appearance of the dominion and majesty of Jesus. Jesus promised a manifestation of the Father and the Son in the souls of the faithful. This indwelling of God, however, is reserved for those who love God. The materialistic world that does not really love, therefore, cannot see this spiritual manifestation of divine glory.
St Augustine commented,
There is, therefore, a certain manifestation of God, which the godless can in no way perceive, since they do not share in the manifestation of the Father and of the Holy Spirit. The manifestations of the Son they could have had, but only those in the flesh; and flesh, by its very nature, is not the spiritual manifestation, nor can it remain with them forever, but only for a short time, as it is created; it is for judgment, not for joy; for punishment, not for reward.
These sublime words of the Lord showed Jude Thaddeus the path to the future. The Lord did not curtail the heroism of this courageous apostle. No one stifled him less than the Messias, who encouraged him and perfected him. This apostle was to remain a bold force and an undaunted warrior, yet his goal was not to be in the establishment of a short-lived and foolhardy kingdom of the world, but in the spreading of the eternal and spiritual kingdom of God in the world. Not politics, but the coming and the abiding of the Father and of the Son and of the love of the Holy Spirit in the souls of all mankind was the mission worthy of his brave heart.
Jude, the Writer
Among the sacred writings of the New Testament there is found an Epistle written by Jude. This Epistle has been attributed to the apostle Jude since early times, and for good reasons. It was boldly and powerfully written, and only a Thaddeus, a courageous one, could have written it. The whole Epistle is only tweny-five verses long. Origen praised it: "Jude wrote a short Epistle, but one filled with words of heavenly wisdom. The apostle addressed it "to the called who have been loved in God the Father and preserved for Christ Jesus.
The author was apparently addressing the Jewish Christians of Palestine and Syria, for the lines, few though they are, are filled with references and allusions to the Old Testament. Other religious books were quoted, those known only to the Jews, such as the "Book of Henoch"-an apocryphal work which Jude did not sanction save for the one prophecy contained in it-and another concerning Moses. The author himself gave the reason for this writing:
For certain men have stealthily entered in, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men who turn the grace of God into wantonness and disown our only Master and only Lord, Jesus Christ.
After distorting and misrepresenting the Christian freedom from the law of the Old Testament, which was demanded by Paul and decided upon by all the apostles, these false teachers rejected the Old Law completely. They spurned any obligation of conscience, and preached a life without restraint, a life enjoyed to the full, a life of impulse and instinct and whim and desire-this was their new and true "gospel." St. Paul had already taken issue with these people, these "enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is ruin, their god is their belly, their glory is in their shame, they mind the things of earth." Peter also, in his second Epistle, pronounced the supreme anathema upon this unrestrained licentiousness and unbridled libertinism which their brazen vice impudently masked with the hypocritical misnomer of "Christian freedom."
In the gospel of his second chapter of his second Epistle, St. Peter defined and described these heretics with the Church:
They regard as pleasure their daylight revelry; they are spots and blemishes, they abound in wantonness while banqueting with you. They have eyes full of adultery and turned unceasingly towards sin. They entice unstable souls; they have their hearts exercised in covetousness; they are children of a curse. They have forsaken the right way and have gone astray.... These men are springs without water and mists driven by storms; the blackness of darkness is reserved for them. For by high-sounding, empty words they entice with sensual allurements of carnal passion those who are just escaping from such as live in error. They promise them freedom, whereas they are the slaves of corruption; for by whatever a man is overcome, of this also he is the slave.
While writing this second Epistle, Peter made good use of the writing of Jude Thaddeus. the second chapter quoted above, when compared with Jude's Epistle, clearly shows this dependence and utilization. The work of Peter reads like a rewritten and somewhat modified text of the smaller Epistle, which he copied and, so to speak, simply presented as his own. From this it can be seen that the head of the apostles, the first in authority, had a great respect for his companion-apostle. Simon Peter and Jude Thaddeus indeed were both strong and bold warriors of God!
The Epistle of St Jude was written between the years 62, the year in which James the Less died, and 67, the date of the composition of the second Epistle of St Peter. According to the testimony of Hegesippus, as long as James the Less was at the head of the Church in Palestine, it was unsullied by false teachers and heretics from within.
The Epistle of Jude begins with a vibranting fanfare, "exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith once for all delivered to the saints." The entire Epistle is an earnest warning, with references to examples from the Old Testament against false teachers. He pointed out the divine judgments and how God had punished such men in the past. The author used a language that was bold and powerful, even severe and blunt. It is reminiscent of the wrath often pronounced by the prophets of the Old Testament:
In like manner do these men also defile the flesh, disregard authority, deride majesty....But these men deride whatever they do not know; and the things they know by instincts like the dumb beasts, become for them a souce of destruction. Woe to them!...These men are stains on their feasts, banqueting together without fear looking after themselves;...wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom the storm of darkness has been reserved forever....These are grumbling murmurers walking according to their lusts. And haughty in speech, they cultivate people for the sake of gain.
In those words, Thaddeus, the courageous apostle, can be recognized. He did not sneak and spy, but was boldly frank. Nor did he have the haughty bearing of aloof royalty; he was humbly direct. With the heavey step of a farmer he walked among our Lord's flock, looking out for its welfare. He was not interested in fame and glory. His one thought was to make "every endeavor to write to you about our common salvation." When this salvation was in peril, he grasped the situation with vigor, proceeded without ceremony, and acted with spirit to preach fearlessly and without anxious concern, proper or improper, what the grace of God commanded him. God inspired him and directed him. Here it becomes apparent that the courage of the apostle Jude Thaddeus was a grace from God.
The Lord's instructions and exhortations at the Last Supper had been heard and heeded by Jude. It was not from an innate inclination for strife, nor from a desire for controversy, nor from a sudden explosion of a quick temper that this apostle set out to write his Epistle. Excusing himself in the very beginning, he wrote, "I found it necessary to write to you, exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith..." It was not the strife that weighed heavily on his heart and soul, but the "common salvation," for which, however, he certainly did not fear or shun contention," for God he was ready to fight. Surprising, however, are his instructions for a practical attitude and behavior toward false teachers, whom he had attacked with such sharp and strong words based on high principles. Their salvation also lay heavy on the soul of this stout-hearted apostle:
And some, who are judged, reprove; but others, save, snatching them from the fire. And to others be merciful with fear, hating even the garment which is soiled by the flesh.
The old Epistle of Jude was written for our own age, too; for our modern civilization, so affected by materialism, is very much influenced by morally primitive pagans who adore only the flesh. Perhaps Jude was writing for us in the twentieth century more than any other age. His words have a special significance and importance for us. Many sermons against the moral abuses of today can be based on this small but important part of the Bible.
The conclusion of the Epistle comes as the first full-voiced Gloria of Easter Week. This beautiful praise of the glory of God rings out as the thankful echo of our Lord's words at the Last Supper. It was then that Jesus spoke to Jude, the apostle called Thaddeus, about the coming of the Father and the Son into souls of those who love God and who have been blessed by Him.
Now to him who is able to preserve you without sin and to set you before the presence of his glory, without blemish, in gladness, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, belong glory and majesty, dominion and authority, before all time, and now, and forever. Amen.
Jude, the Apostle
The apostolic labors of Jude Thaddeus, like those of most of the other apostles, are surrounded with darkness. What is recorded about these works is as thoroughly muddled and entangled as the accounts concerning his three names. All this has given rise to much confusion. The only credible and reliable conclusions are those drawn from the apostle's own Epistle. Here Palestine was indicated as the main missionary field. In this country the two farmer brothers, James the Less and Jude Thaddeus, had ploughed up fallow land and furrowed it anew. They worked hard and applied themselves wholeheartedly. But what a small world it was then! This reaping the harvest of grain under the sun before the rain fell was only a preparation for the time when they were to reap the harvest of souls for Christ, under a bursting storm, before the divine splendor appeared for eternity.
Assuming from the Epistle that Palestine was the field of Jude's missionary activity, Nicephorus Callistus noted that this apostle labored in Judea, Galilee, Samaria, and Idumea. Jude labored in Galilee! There his good and aging wife and his sons lived. They were still culivating the fields that once belonged to him. There his grandsons, Zoker and James lived. They still run and clung to their grandfather when he returned, dusty and tired, from his apostolic journeys. And yet on other days he left his much-loved homeland and gave himself over completely to the will of God to preach in other areas. This was the personal sacrifice of the apostle.
Syrian authors have reported that the missionary field of the apostle Jude Thaddeus was centered around Edessa, a city now name Urfa, in southeastern Turkey. The Armenians, whose vast empire included Edessa in the year 90 B.C., named the apostles Jude Thaddeus and Bartholomew, in a hymnal of the thirteenth century, as their "first illuminators."
A rare document from the archives of Edessa, quoted by Eusebius, presented a correspondence between Christ and Prince Abgar V of Edessa. Abgar begged the Lord to come to him in Edessa in order to cure him of his sickness. Christ answered that he had been sent by the Father to Israel alone. Yet after His Ascension He would send one of His disciples to Edessa. Later-so Eusebius explained-the apostle Thomas sent Thaddeus, one of the seventy-two disciples who was also named Addeur, to Abgar. The "Doctrine of Addeus" a later continuation of this old legend compiled around the year 400, added the further account that the messenger of Abgar had painted the picture of Christ. Nothing more need be said about the authenticity of his letter. Here also Eusebius confused the apostle Thaddeus, one of the Twelve, with Addeus, one of the seventy-two disciples, the founder of the Church at Edessa.
Other legends maintian that Jude Thaddeus first labored among his own people in Palestine, and then journeyed through the neighboring lands, Arabia, Syria, Mesopotamia. These legends certainly have a greater probability than the others. He is said to have suffered martyrdom in Berythus (now Beirut, capital of Lebanon) or in Aradus in Phoenicia. However, most Greek commentators concluded that this apostle died a natural death.
The ten books of Craton, a pupil of the apostle (which writing can be dated from the beginning of the fourth century), placed Thaddeus, along with his brother Simon, in Persia. The two were apostolic missionaries together in this vast and powerful empire. Depite the incessant hostilities of two Magi (members of a priestly caste), Zaroes and Arfaxat, the success of the two apostles was colossal. Some of the legends that have arisen from this older legend are too fantastic to deserve repetition. In Babylon they converted and baptized sixty thousand men, not counting women and children. In thirteen years the two passed through the twelve provinces of the Persian Empire.
When the apostles entered the city of Suanir, they were called upon to offer sacrifice in the pagan temple to the sun and the moon. Both explained that the sun and the moon were only creations of the one true God, whom they preached. They drove the demons out of the pagan's idols, two black, hideous figures, and the evil spirits fled, howling and blaspheming. The both priests and people assailed the two apostles. And Jude said to Simon, "I see my Lord Jesus Christ calls us." A shower of stones and a barrage of sticks killed them-therefore artists have portrayed Jude with a stick in his hand.
King Xerxes, as the legend continues, supposedly had the bodies of these two apostles-martyrs taken to the city in which he resided. There he ordered that a beautiful, eight-sided church be constructed out of marble. He had their bodies preserved in a silver sarcophagus placed in a small room plated with gold. The building should have been completed in three years, and consecrated on the day of the apostles' death, July 1.
These Latin legends, which drew heavily from the old writings of Craton, are used in the Roman Breviary as lessons for the feast of the apostles Simon and Jude. In the Roman Church these two apostles have been honored together on the same day for many centuries, as are James and Philip, and Peter and Paul. The relationship between Jude and Simon, alluded to in Scripture, and their common labors and death, witnessed by legends, may well be the basis for their common feast. Their feast day comes in last autumn, October 28. This calls to mind the serious words in Jude's Epistle: "... trees in the fall, unfruitful, twice dead, uprooted...," and autumn "...clouds without water, carried about by the winds..."
At the conclusion of the life of an apostle there is almost always a feeling of disappointment and dissatisfaction: more certain and exact information is noticeably lacking. Certainly there were many great words and works of the apostle Jude Thaddeus which were not intended for our knowledge by Divine Providence. Yet we do know that he was a courageous apostle. Only God, who sees from eternity, knows his complete life; the world knows little. Perhaps this is the real meaning of that limited manifestation of God. It is both a comfort and a reminder to recall the words of Christ to Jude Thaddeus that He would not manifest Himself to the world as He would to the apostles. But" 'if anyone love me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with Him.'"
This ends Chapter Ten of Father Hophan's book: "The Apostle".
Simon is mentioned on all four lists of the apostles. On two of them he is called "the Zealot". Jude is so named by Luke and Acts. Matthew and Mark called him Thaddeus.
These two bold and brave apostles feast are celebrated together as a reminder that we cannot receive too often. According to Father Foley, that I have quoted elsewhere, holiness does not depend on human merit, culture, personality, effort or achievement. It is entirely God's creation and gift.
God needs no Zealots to bring about the kingdom by force. Jude, like all the saints, is the saint of the impossible: only God can create his divine life in human beings. And God wills to do so, for all of us. Click on their names above for details about these two apostles who Christ chose to establish and build his Church. Let us be reminded of Blessed John XXIII words: "On my shoulders, on the shoulders of all priests, all Catholics, rest the solemn duty of working together for the conversion of this impious world." The following links provides insight on both Sts Jude and Simon:
http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/golden296.htmFrom another Apostles site:
Apostles.com
