Hello everyone and
welcome to Saint Study Episode #107 – “St. Jude Thaddeus The Apostle”
Thank you for
joining us – maybe we can all learn enough today that by the end of
the program we will say, “I didn’t know that” (But now I do!)
What is a
saint? A Canonized Saint is someone recognized by the Church as
having led a life of great charity & heroic virtue. Their example of
how to conquer any sin imaginable is so important that it was worth
recognizing these men & women in a significant way. Anyone
(canonized or not) whose soul was cleansed in Purgatory and now
resides in Heaven is a Saint. It is every Christian’s goal to become
a saint.
We always begin our
learning by inviting the Holy Spirit to be with us…
In the Name Of
The Father, Son & Holy Spirit. Amen.
Dear Heavenly
Father we ask you to be with us as we hear about the lives of your
Saints. We ask that our minds be open and that you may fill us with
the knowledge that was so loved by the men and women who lived lives
of heroic virtue and great charity. Allow us to understand and
emulate these Saints who we now know are in your company. In your
name we pray, Amen.
Let’s look at
The Saint for this weeks study St. Jude Thaddeus
Saints Birth,
Life-Bio, Death, Feast Day,
Like most
Pre-congregation saints, little of anything is known about their
childhood and upbringing.
We know he was the
son of Cleophas.
Was also the
brother of St. James the Lesser
Nephew of St. Mary
& St. Joseph, Parents of Jesus. (Blood relative of Christ)
It is unknown when
or how Jude Thaddeus became an apostle
Surname Thaddeus
used frequently to clarify that he was not the former apostle
Judas Iscariot.
Being such a close
relative of Jesus, It was said that St. Jude Thaddeus closely
resemble Christ in his physical appearance.
Famously asked
Jesus at the Last Supper, why he did not manifest himself to the
world?
Jesus told him,
“the world is unqualified for divine manifestations, being a
stranger and an enemy to what must fit souls for a fellowship with
heaven; but that he would honor those who truly love him with his
familiar converse, and would admit them to intimate communications
of grace and favor.
.After Pentecost,
St. Jude Thaddeus went out to preach the Gospel in Judea, Samaria,
Idumaa, Syria & Mesopotamia.
In the year 62,
St. Jude Thaddeus returned to Jerusalem after the martyrdom of his
brother, St. James the Lesser.
That same year he
assisted his good friend, St. Simon to become the Bishop of
Jerusalem.
St. Jude was good
friend of St. Simon the Apostle. So much so that the two men are
venerated on the same day.
St. Jude wrote
Epistles to the areas he previously converted as heresies were
taking place. St. Jude warned them of the errors of the Simonians
and the Gnostics.
FYI – (Newadvent.org)
(C.C.C. 2121) The Simonians were followers of Simon Magus. He
was someone who tried to buy the blessings of God from St.
Peter. St. Peter excommunicated Simon Magus from the church. (A
sin called Simony) The Simonians used magic and theurgy,
incantations, and love-potions; they declared idolatry a matter
of indifference that was neither good nor bad, proclaimed
fornication to be perfect love, and led very disorderly, immoral
lives.
Gnosticism -
(Newadvent.org) (C.C.C. 285) The doctrine of salvation by
knowledge. This definition, based on the etymology of the word,
is correct as far as it goes, but it gives only one, though
perhaps the predominant, characteristic of Gnostic systems of
thought. Whereas Judaism and Christianity, and almost all pagan
systems, hold that the soul attains its proper end by obedience
of mind and will to the Supreme Power, i.e. by faith and works,
it is markedly peculiar to Gnosticism that it places the
salvation of the soul merely in the possession of a
quasi-intuitive knowledge of the mysteries of the universe and
of magic formulae indicative of that knowledge. Gnostics were
"people who knew", and their knowledge at once constituted them
a superior class of beings, whose present and future status was
essentially different from that of those who, for whatever
reason, did not know.
These heresies
were a significant motivator for St. Jude’s zeal in writing the
epistles.
Remember that
the Apostles were the first Bishops of the church. They went
around evangelizing and setting up new Christian churches
wherever they were assigned to go. They built churches and
ordained priests to run those new Christian churches.
The letters
written back to these areas (such as Jude’s letter) are
reminders from the Bishop about following what was taught
to them about the new Christian Church or to clarify something
that has come into question.
St. Jude’s Letter
is the 26th book in the New Testament just before the
Book of Revelation.
It is very short
but its purpose is to warn people against heresies.
The end of Jude’s
letter is also known for its majestic closing doxology. (Jude
1:24-25)
Doxology –
Liturgical expression meaning praise to God
(Jude 1:24-25)
To the one who is able to keep you from stumbling and to
present you unblemished and exultant, in the presence of His
glory, to only God our saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord be
glory, majesty, power and authority fro ages past, now and for
ages to come. Amen.
Said to be
martyred by being beaten to death with a club, then beheaded
post-mortem in 1st century Persia
Also thought to
have been martyred by being shot to death with arrows while being
tied to a cross.
relics at Saint
Peter’s Basilica, Rome, Italy, at Rheims, France, and at Toulouse,
France
Shares Feast day
with good friend and fellow apostle St. Simon – October 28th
Patronage
desperate
situations
forgotten
causes
hospital
workers
hospitals
impossible
causes
lost causes
diocese of Saint
Petersburg, Florida,
His patronage of lost or impossible causes
traditionally derives from confusion by many early Christians
between Jude and the traitor Judas Iscariot
Not
understanding the difference between the names, they never prayed
for Jude’s help, and devotion to him became something of a lost
cause.
Jude is invoked in desperate situations
because his New Testamentletter stresses that the faithful
should persevere in the environment of harsh, difficult
circumstances, just as their forefathers had done before them.
Conclusions –
Interesting notes about their life or sainthood
We begin to see the
pattern that after Jesus death, many heresies began to circulate.
The First Bishops of the Church recognized this right away and began
to warn the early Christians about the problems of heresies.
Sound familiar? Are
we aware of any heresies today?
Has anyone knocked
on your door trying to pull you away from the Catholic Church?
Consider why the
Catholic Church is considered the true Christian church because it
has the (4) marks of the Church…
One – There
is only one Christian Church, united in faith, in worship and in
succession from the Apostles themselves.
Holy –"The
Church ... is held, as a matter of faith, to be unfailingly holy.
This is because Christ, the Son of God, who with the Father and
the Spirit is hailed as "alone holy", loved the Church as his
Bride, giving himself up for her so as to sanctify her; he joined
her to himself as his body and endowed her with the gift of the
Holy Spirit for the glory of God."
Catholic –
"Catholic" in this sense is the "small-c" "catholic", which means
"universal". The Church can be found in St Peter's Basilica, in a
suburban parish church, in a group of faithful in the Amazon
Jungle.
Apostolic –
Recognizing apostolic succession. The Catholic Church validly
claims succession from the Apostles themselves.
