ST SIMON OF CYRENE

The African who helped Jesus carry the Cross to Calvary

Lord of Simon’s calling-to-aid, hallow our every day with your need of us. Make us understand its meaning wherever it meets us and give us readiness of heart and hand and mind.

The King will answer, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters you did it to me”. (Matthew 25:40)

Simon came from the North Africa town of Cyrene. He was almost certainly a Jew by faith but we do not know if his family had emigrated from the Holy Land or whether he was a convert from an African or Graeco-Roman family. In any event, he was a pilgrim in Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover when he was conscripted to help Jesus carry the crossbeam of his cross. It seems that as a result of this experience, he came to follow Jesus “on the Way” so that he and his sons Alexander and Rufus were well known in the Church for which St Mark’s Gospel was written, while Saint Paul regarded Simon’s wife as his own mother.

Simon’s day ought, perhaps, to be for us the festival of the passer-by, the feast of the unexpected. Imagine “coming out of the country” and being caught up in the redemption of the world. This is a parable of the
truth of sainthood in people – the claim of the divine in the ordinary, the critical in the trivial, “the eternal moment which is always now”.

COLLECT FOR ST SIMON OF CYRENE

Lord God,
your Son our Saviour taught us that whenever we help
the weak and helpless we serve him in love.
We give you thanks for Simon from Africa;
fill our hearts with love and compassion like his
and open our eyes to see Jesus in those who ask
for our love and our service.
Grant this through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God for ever and ever. Amen.