What the Text Says
Among the Twelve named by Jesus is Simon, called “the Cananaean” in Mark’s and Matthew’s lists and “the Zealot” in Luke’s (Mk 3:18; cf. Mt 10:4; Lk 6:15). The Zealots were associated with fierce resistance to Roman occupation of Judea. On the same list, a few names away, is Matthew, a former tax collector, a man whose profession made him a paid collaborator with that same Roman occupation. Scripture records no argument or tension between them. It simply names them together among the twelve men Christ chose to be with him (Mk 3:16-19).
What the Church Teaches
The Church’s unity has never depended on erasing real differences between her members. It depends on something larger than those differences holding them together. The Catechism teaches, “From the beginning, this one Church has been marked by a great diversity which comes from both the variety of God’s gifts and the diversity of those who receive them… The great richness of such diversity is not opposed to the Church’s unity” (CCC 814). Simon and Matthew, standing on opposite sides of the defining political question of their day, are held together in exactly this way.
Personal Reflection: For Fathers
(This section is pastoral application and personal takeaway, not a restatement of defined Church teaching. If a specific situation in your own household is weighing on you, bring it to confession or a conversation with a priest rather than treating this reflection as a ruling.)
It is worth pausing on how strange this pairing actually is: a man associated with armed revolt against Rome and a man who made his living working for Rome, called into the same twelve, given the same mission, expected to live and work together for years. A father often has to lead a household, or work alongside people, whose politics or history he finds genuinely hard to stomach.
Christ’s answer to that tension was not to pick a side and exclude the other. It was to call both men and hold them together in a mission larger than their disagreement. A father raising a family in a politically divided world is not required to pretend those divisions do not exist. He is asked to model something Simon and Matthew had to live out daily: a shared mission that outranks the disagreement, without requiring either man to stop being who he actually was.
Call to Action
This week, name one person in your life or household whose politics or past makes real unity difficult, and do one concrete thing to hold your shared mission, family, parish, or faith, above that division, the way Simon and Matthew did. Watch your own conversation for a moment when you are tempted to write someone off entirely over a political disagreement, and choose instead the harder path of staying in real relationship with them. Read the list of the Twelve in Mark 3:16-19 aloud and notice how many unlikely pairings Christ himself was comfortable with.
Doctrinal note: Claims above are tied to CCC 814. Translation used: RSV-CE. Please confirm any point you plan to teach publicly with a priest, deacon, or trusted catechist before publishing.
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