Christ established a Church on earth, endowed it with every means of sanctity and
grace. He selected twelve men whom he specially trained for the ministry and these
were to be his College of Apostles who were to preach the Gospel to all the nations.
After Pentecost we see these Apostles animated with a deep love for their Divine
Master, facing endless persecutions, and preaching Christ crucified throughout the
world. They detached themselves from worldly affairs, and in fact, left all things,
for the sake of Christ. It was quite clear to them that in order to love God and
to taste his love they had to disentangle themselves from all attachment to created
things, in short they had to die to themselves before living for Him. This was the
mystery which Christ unfolded to St. Jude, his kinsman and one of the apostles.
St. Jude was son of Alpheus (Cleophas), brother of St. Joseph, foster-father of
our Lord. Cleophas was a very faithful disciple of Christ and was one of the two
disciples to whom our Lord appeared on the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus. Cleophas
was later put to death by the Jews because he gave public testimony of the Resurrection
of our Lord, and thus won the crown of martyrdom. The mother of St. Jude was Mary
Cleophas, a close relative of the mother of Jesus, and one of the holy women who
stood at the foot of the Cross on Calvary. Her holy body remains at Verulis and
great miracles have been wrought at her grave. St. Jude was therefore a close relative
of our Lord through his father and his mother. He is one of the few Saints who enjoys
proximity of actual relationship to the brothers, like himself became martyrs for
the sake of Christ, namely St. James, as we see in the New Testament and Simon of
Jerusalem. There is also mention of one Joses and all of them are called the brethren
of our Lord (Mt 28:55).
From his early childhood St. Jude had the privilege of being in frequent association
with the boy Jesus. He and the other members of the family were doubtless quite
at home in the little house of the Holy Family at Nazareth, with Mary and Joseph
their close relatives. This association certainly had a great influence on Jude,
the future Apostole, who, like his Master was dominated by the virtue of love. Nothing
is heard of him in the Gospel until we find him numbered among the Apostles (cf.
Lk 6:16).
After the Last Supper when Christ promised to manifest himself to everyone who would
love him, St. Jude asked him why he did not manifest himself to the whole world.
Christ answered that he would visit all those who love him and would admit them
to intimate communication of grace (Jn 14:22-23).
In his later years St. Jude was privileged to be enumerated among the sacred writers
of the Scriptures. He wrote an epistle which, though short, is exalted in language
and inspiring in matter. His great humility and his self-effacement are clearly
seen from the "Epistle," where far off from making any reference of his kinship
to our Lord, he describes himself as "Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ," by which
he meant an apostolic minister or labourer. He also refers to himself as the "brother
of James," as James the Less, who became the Bishop of Jerusalem.
James the Less was better known than St. Jude in the early Church.