Fame!

Always hoped that I'd be an Apostle.

Knew that I could make it if I tried.

Then when we retire we can write the Gospels.

So they'll still talk about us when we've died.

Tim Rice's lyrics from Jesus Christ Superstar.

As the Apostles recline at the Last Supper table.

Simon and Jude (also called Judas) did earn a measure of fame.

We are still talking about them—two thousand years since when they died.

This very day, as they share their joint Feast Day.

Loosely speaking, we call the day we commemorate a saint his or her feast day.

But more precisely, there are different levels of feast days on the liturgical calendar.

Some saints get only an optional memorial; they're not necessarily even mentioned at Mass.

More famous saints get an obligatory memorial.

And still more famous saints, like these Apostles, get a bona fide Feast day.

Only a few of the most famous saints receive an even higher recognition.

Like Mary and Joseph, John the Baptist, and Peter and Paul.

They each have multiple feasts, and many of those rise to the rank of Solemnities.

The saints we remember today are not the most famous saints.

Not even the most famous Simon—Simon Peter.

Nor the most infamous Judas—Judas Iscariot.

These are Simon the Zealot, and Jude, Son of James.

As with most of the Apostles, there's very little that we really know about them.

But we do know that Jesus chose them as Apostles.

And that that they carried out the mission he gave them of spreading the word.

Tradition tells us that they were eventually martyred.

Simon is one of the most obscure Apostles.

He's believed to have worked together with Jude.

Carrying the Gospel to Palestine, Lebanon and Persia.

Jude is sometimes called the brother of Jesus—he may have been a cousin, or Joseph's son.

He has some fame as the patron of hopeless causes, and patron of many hospitals.

I doubt the Tim Rice's lyrics really capture the true sense of the Apostles' ambition.

Although there are those accounts of pride,
Like their arguing over who among them was greatest.

But by the time of the Last Supper they were developing a better understanding of their mission.

Their call, as Apostles, to lead the Church.

But even more, their basic as disciples to work toward their own glorious reward.

And to help bring others along by spreading the Good News.

To see that, as our responsorial psalm says today:

Their message goes out through all the earth.

Today, each one of us has inherited that disciple calling.

As we strive to follow it we might find a better statement of true success and fame.

In a another musical.

The lyricist may have had a less glorious, more worldly, vision in mind.

But the refrain is right on target.

Fame! I'm gonna live forever.

I'm gonna learn how to fly high.

Fame! I'm gonna make it to heaven.

Light up the sky like a flame.

Tuesday, 30th Week of  Ordinary Time
Feast of St Simon & St Jude

Lk 6:12-16      Read this Scripture @usccb.org