Scipture

Why does St Jude have a medallion around his neck?

23/10/2024

I don’t know about you, but I have always been curious about the medallion with an image of Jesus around St Jude’s neck in many of his images. This typical element of St Jude’s iconography is rooted in an ancient legend that goes back to the early Church, at about the fourth century, and recounted by St Eusebius of Caesarea (Historia Ecclesiastica, 1.13).

The legend says that King Abgar of Edessa (a city in modern day Turkey) was ill. When he heard about Jesus, he sent a letter asking for healing and offering him a place of refuge from those who wanted to kill him. Jesus refused to go because of his obedience to the Father’s will. However, Jesus was so impressed by the faith of this king that he wiped his face with a handkerchief on which he left an imprint of his face and sent it to King Abgar, while promising him that after he had suffered his passion and was lifted up, he would send one of his disciples to him. When the king saw this image, he placed it with great reverence in one of the halls in his palace.

One version of this legend states that after Jesus’ ascension into heaven and the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles, Thaddaeus (St Jude the Apostle) was sent to King Abgar of Edessa, as Jesus had promised. St Jude placed his hands on the King, and he was cured through the power of the name of Jesus. Astonished by this, the King converted to the Christian faith along with all the people in his kingdom.

Although we are not sure if this story did actually take place, it is certain that behind this story there is a hidden truth of great importance that enlightened the life of this holy Apostle and enlightens us in our Christian vocation. St Paul in his Second Letter to the Corinthians, writes:

And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.

2 Corinthians 3:18

Created in the image of God and adopted as his sons and daughters through baptism, we bear the image of Christ in our souls similar to the image imprinted on the handkerchief, an image that gives us our identity and our dignity. But this image also brings responsibility. Like St Jude, we are sent “with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror.” We are called so that, after we allow God’s mercy to be poured into our hearts, we approach our brothers and sisters and share with them this mercy, leading them to healing that can only come about through an encounter with the crucified and risen Christ. The Lord often uses us so that, like St Jude, after allowing the glory of the Lord’s face to rest upon us and gradually transform us into his likeness, we in turn gaze upon others and become instruments in the Lord’s hands by allowing his light to shine upon them through us, we allow him to look upon them with a loving gaze, through concrete gestures of love, a kind word, a loving silence which is ready to listen, and by the time we dedicate to others.

Through the intercession of St Jude, may we allow Christ’s image to be imprinted within us to continually transform us into a more perfect reflection of himself so, even if simply through our gaze or our smile, “with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror” upon our world and upon our brothers and sisters in our times.

The names of Anne and Joachim

07/08/2024

An old Christian tradition dating back to the second century attributes the names of Anna and Joachim to the parents of the Virgin Mary. Their specific names indicate their role in the Father’s plan of salvation by sending his Son into the world.

Anna means “grace,” whilst Joachim means “that which God has established.” Putting them together, Mary’s parents symbolise God’s promise put into action with his people from the beginning of times. The marriage of these two personalities was one of the last prologues to Jesus’s birth.

The oldest written reference to these names is found in the Proto-Evangelium of St James, written in the mid-second century based on first century traditions. This early Christian document starts with the events related to the birth of Mary until the flight to Egypt.

Joachim and Anna are presented as a God-fearing and generous wealthy couple which remained childless. The fact that they lamented that they didn’t have children leads us to conclude that they were past the age to bearing children. Thus, we can assert that they were advanced in years when Mary was born. It is not clear which one of the parents was sterile, because both Joachim and Anna were scorned because they didn’t have any progeny. This shame led Joachim to go in the desert for forty days, awaiting the Lord’s visit, whilst Anna stayed in her house garden crying and praying. The symbolism of this time of trail is very strong: forty days remind us of the time the people of Israel spent in the desert, struggling between faithfulness and betrayal, while both the desert and the garden in the Bible represent the place where the heart meets God and finds rest.

They were both rewarded for their faith because both were visited by God’s messengers who announced to them that they will have a child. This heavenly announcement revealed that this child had an important role to fulfil. After nine months Mary was born, and they kept her with them for three years, when they sent her to live in the temple to serve the Lord according to the promise they had made on knowing that they were going to become parents.