Let’s begin with a quiz. Of the twelve apostles which one do you think most resembled Jesus in appearance– a) Peter b) John c) Matthew d) Judas? No fair looking at the answer.
Today we get St. Luke’s version of the list of Apostles. It is interesting how the evangelists compose their own order of listing. Peter is always first—the Pope; and Judas Iscariot is always last, the traitor. Those in between vary in their positions on the chart.
There are some “dads” also listed, as we see in today’s gospel excerpt. It seems that James the Lesser (the smaller) was Cleopas’s (also known as Alphaeus) son. And it says today that Judas (not Iscariot) was the son of James, though another source says that Judas (we call him Jude) was the brother of James. One scholar believes that Cleopas was Joseph’s brother, and his wife was Mary’s sister. Are you following me so far? So that seems to make James and Jude, Jesus’ first cousins. They probably grew up with him.
Okay the answer to the quiz. An early tradition says that Jude was a Jesus “look-a-like.” Don’t know where this came from except that it is listed in a book of saints. It would make sense that Jesus and his cousin Jude might have resembled each other.
So let’s investigate Luke’s listing (Luke 6:12-16).
“Jesus went up to the mountain to pray and spent the night in prayer to God. When day came, he called his disciples to himself, and from them he chose Twelve whom he also named Apostles: Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alpheus, Simon who was called a Zealot, and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.”
We notice that Jesus’ cousins, James and Jude, are listed at the end. Were they last on the list to become disciples of Jesus, or was it clear that Jesus did not give preferential treatments to his “cousins”. Tradition has it that Jude and Simon worked as partners after the resurrection of Jesus and travelled together and maybe martyred together. This is why, I suppose, that they are paired on this, their feast day–Saints Simon and Jude.
I wonder if we did a Jesus look-a-like contest with us readers, who would most resemble Jesus? First, we remember that the resurrected Jesus didn’t look much like Jesus. In one case, he looked like a gardener, in another an anonymous traveler, in another a ghost, and in another an ordinary guy walking the beach in the morning. We wonder why Jesus didn’t look like himself after the resurrection. For one thing he wanted to resemble every Christian disciple who represents him to the world. The Catholic Church teaches us that priests, in their role as sacramental ministers are “alter Christus”—other Christs. That doesn’t mean they are mere representatives of Christ; it means, literally, they are Christ—that is how powerful the grace of their ordination is. In the confessional, the priest may look like Father Tom, but, in fact, he is Jesus—Jesus is speaking, listening, and absolving as Father Tom interacts with a penitent. St. Paul says, in effect, that in some way each of us is an “alter Christus.” In his letter to the Colossians (1:27) Paul reminds them that that God’s mystery is “Christ within you, the hope for glory.” Did we catch that? Jesus is alive inside each of us, and the closer we get to him, the more we become Jesus; we begin to look like his sisters and brothers. People begin to say, “You remind me of Jesus.” And the love of Christ inside us makes them want to let Jesus into their lives as well.
Jude, James, and Simon have nothing on us. The more we allow Jesus to take over our lives, the more we are beyond being cousins; we are sisters and brothers of God’s beloved Son. Do we realize who we are and can be?
