Today we remember two of Jesus’ apostles, Simon and Jude, the Zealot and the Patron of Hopeless Causes. However they, like all the apostles, have something else to teach us. When we look at the apostles we see a group of men who were intensely loved by Jesus. St. Thérèse of Lisieux, in contemplating the command of Jesus to "Love one another as I have loved you," writes, “I set to work to discover how Jesus had loved them. I found that He had not loved them for their natural qualities, for they were ignorant and taken up with earthly things, yet he called them His friends (John 15:15) and His brothers (John 20:17) and wanted to have them with Him in His Father's Kingdom; He was ready to die on the Cross to make this possible, saying: "Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13).
The apostles were all ordinary men, from ordinary backgrounds, ordinary places, and yet Jesus called them to follow Him, and entrusted His ministry and so much more to them; we profess our belief in “one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church,” a Church built on apostolic foundations (Revelation 12:14). And yet, like the apostles were, Jesus also calls us to Himself, to be with Himself, to prepare the way for Him in the world. The example of the apostles show us that Jesus can call any of us—indeed He calls each of us—“…to himself…” to know, love, and serve Him, promising to put any and all of our strengths, weaknesses, and gifts to use for His greater glory.