Today's gospel, we see our Lord taking this most solemn moment to spend the whole night in prayer to His Heavenly Father in order to discern who would be those twelve who would constitute the foundation stones of His Church.
These twelve were numbered twelve because they were meant to fulfill the twelve tribes of Israel from the Old Testament. This would be forming the new people of God, fulfilling everything that was prefigured in the old with regard to the people of God.
This is exactly what today's first reading explains to us. This is St. Paul's letter to the Ephesians that this Church, this people being gathered is built upon the foundation of the apostles.
This is also what the book of Revelation 22:14 says, "the wall of the city had twelve foundations and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb."
And so that is a very special calling that these two apostles that we celebrate today, Simon and Jude, that they had and they shared with the other ten, and they fulfilled their mission with great generosity.
This is what today's response to our psalm talks about, "the heavens declare the glory of God." So the work of the apostles is compared to the heavens because they have the holiness, the divine life, the brightness of God within their own souls that declares the glory of God. "Day pours out the word to day and night to night imparts knowledge." So St. Simon and Jude, day and night they were pouring out the word to souls and imparting the knowledge of Jesus Christ and of the gospel.
"Through all the earth, their voice resounds and to the ends of the world, their message." And so this was the extent of the preaching of the apostles meant to convert the whole world.
Now, St. Simon and Jude were entrusted with that particular sector of Syria and Persia and that's where they sealed their testimony with their own blood. And so their word, the truth of the gospel, continues to resound today.
In fact, St. Jude wrote one of the New Testament letters and that is published everywhere in so many languages and read throughout the world. So exactly, their message continues to resound throughout the world and continues to build up this edifice, the household of God.
And so today the Church throughout the world praises them and thanks God for the work they have done.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.