and longest of the Gospels, in which his chief object is to show how our Lord fulfilled all that was foretold of Him by the Prophets, and that He is therefore the long-promised Messiah and Son of God.
Philip, Bartholomew, Simon and Jude. Of the friends Philip and Bartholomew, or Nathaniel, we have seen something. Of Simon, the Canaanite, and Jude we know little beyond their names. Jude wrote an Epistle in which he earnestly exhorts the first faithful to stand fast in the faith first delivered to the Saints and taught by the Apostles.
James, the son of Alphaeus, called "the Less," to distinguish him from St. James the Great, the son of Zebedee, was brother to St. Jude and cousin of our Blessed Lord. We hear little of him in the Gospels. He was the first Bishop of Jerusalem, and for his holiness was revered even by the Jews.
Judas Iscariot comes last in all the lists. Some of the Evangelists add to his name "who also betrayed Him," terrible words that pass down for the detestation of all ages the crime of the miserable disciple who thus repaid the love and preference of His Master. Out of all men our Lord had chosen Judas to be one of His best loved and trusted companions. He had a most real and tender love for him. He chose him because He loved him. He gave him special graces, and with the rest the gift of preaching, of healing the sick, of casting out devils. He gave him warning after warning. But all in vain. A fault which he might easily have conquered in the beginning grew and grew till he became its slave. He did not ask the help he needed, and when strong temptation came he fell never to rise again.
