Saturday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time
Jude 17
Jude gives a simple command:
Remember.
In Greek:
mnēsthēte.
But this is not weak memory.
Not “try not to forget.”
Not “think about the past.”
It means:
bring it back before your heart, hold it before you, let it guide you now.
Because what we do not remember, we slowly stop living.
Jude says:
“Remember the words spoken beforehand by the apostles.”
Spoken words.
A voice once heard and now called back.
The apostles and evangelists handed down to us the story of Jesus.
That is the first thing we need to remember:
Jesus.
His life. His words. His death. His resurrection.
Then they showed us how to live as his followers:
love above all.
And they also warned us:
there will be confusion, there will be mockers, there will be people led by desire, there will be division.
All these things we must remember.
We are almost two thousand years away from those apostolic words.
And yet we have them.
Written. Copied. Translated. Printed. Read aloud. Carried by the Church from generation to generation.
But a word can be near the eyes and far from the heart.
It can sit on a shelf. It can appear on a screen. It can be heard at Mass. And still not guide us.
But this can change.
It begins when we realize that we urgently need these words.
Because every age has voices that pull us away from the words of the apostles.
Our age has its own sayings:
Follow your desire. Build your image. Protect your comfort. Trust your anger. Forget the weak. Live without roots. Do not look too deeply.
And if we hear these voices every day, but do not remember the apostolic word, we will be shaped without noticing.
So we must return.
Slowly.
Daily.
Together.
We read the words. We repeat the words. We pray the words. We carry the words into action.
“Remain in his love.”
“Love one another.”
“Be sober and watchful.”
“Build yourselves up in your most holy faith.”
“Have mercy on those who doubt.”
These are not dead sentences.
They are living rhēmata.
Words spoken into storms.
Words placed in our hands before the night came.
To remember them is to become awake again.
To remember them is to let the apostles stand beside us.
To remember them is to let the Church become memory against the forgetfulness of the world.
So today Jude says:
Beloved,
remember.
Bring the words back before your heart.
Hold them there.
Let them steady you.
And when the world becomes loud,
let the apostolic voice be louder still.
Scripture Attribution
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993
the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of
Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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