Today is the feast of The Holy Apostle Jude

“Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.” Judas, not the Iscariot, said to him, “Master, then what happened that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him” (John 14:21-23).

Have we ever been mid-identified to our embarrassment? The Apostle Jude has one line in the Gospels, “Master, then what happened that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?” but in asking this question he is identified by who he is not: “Judas, not the Iscariot.” Perhaps then it is fitting that Jesus answered Judas with words of God’s love, that to those who love him by keeping his commandments, “my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.

In every Liturgy, we pray that we not “give you a kiss as did Judas,” but that we not be like Judas Iscariot, but like Judas, the Lord’s faithful brother, that God may dwell in us. We must hear the words written by the disciple who did not betray Jesus, “But you, beloved, build yourselves up in your most holy faith; pray in the holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in the love of God and wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.” (Jude 20-21).

Meditation by Archpriest David Petras

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