Homily for Wednesday, 25 July 2018‒ Feast of St. James

Wednesday of the 16th Week in Ordinary Time

Readings of the day: 2 Corinthians 4:7-15; Psalm 126:1bc-2ab, 2cd-3, 4-5, 6; Matthew 20:20-28

Does anybody, like me, wonder why readings were not chosen for this feast of St. James that could have cast this great Apostle in a better light than our readings today do?

St. James is the only one of the twelve Apostles whose martyrdom, under Herod Agrippa, is explicitly accounted for in the New Testament. Could the Church not have chosen for today’s feast the passage from Acts 12 in which James becomes the first of the Twelve to give his life for Christ? This event is alluded to in our Prayer over the Gifts today. We will pray in a few moments: “Cleanse us, Lord, by the saving baptism of your Son’s Passion, so that on the feast of St. James, whom you willed to be the first among the Apostles to drink of Christ’s chalice of suffering, we may offer a sacrifice pleasing to you.”

And yet the Church gives us a Gospel reading from Matthew today in which James, along with his brother John, through their mother, try to ensure their own prestigious places, one at Jesus’ right and the other at his left, in the Kingdom of Heaven. James and John seem to have understood nothing about what this “saving baptism of [our Lord’s] Passion,” or what we might term the Universal Call to Holiness, entails for any follower of Christ; for any Apostle, sent into service in our world in Christ’s place.

In his apostolic exhortation, Gaudete et exsultate (Rejoice and Be Glad), Pope Francis connects the Universal Call to Holiness to a Christian’s acceptance of suffering and humiliation in a remarkable way. Pope Francis says in Gaudete et exsultate: “Humility can only take root in the heart through humiliations. Without them, there is no humility or holiness. If you are unable to suffer and offer up a few humiliations, you are not humble and you are not on the path to holiness. The holiness that God bestows on his Church comes through the humiliation of his Son.”

Understandably, the other ten Apostles become angry with James and John for seeking the prestigious places in the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus’ question to James and John is crucial in today’s Gospel: “Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink”? Jesus’ question to James and John is so significant because he asks the same question of us today: Are we willing to suffer misunderstanding and ridicule for our faith, if not outright persecution or threats to our lives, which are rare in a secularized society like ours but still affect so many of our Christian sisters and brothers in our world?

At some point, St. James grew from seeking prestige for himself, not understanding that seeking prestige over others is inimical to the Kingdom of Heaven, to becoming the first of the twelve Apostles to accept suffering and death for Christ. And so today, we do not celebrate somebody who was perfect throughout his life (except that, by celebrating the feast of St. James, we celebrate Jesus, who was perfect). No, we celebrate the imperfect St. James, one whom the Lord perfected until he was able to drink Christ’s cup of suffering and death; until he was fit for eternal life. And we celebrate ourselves, insofar as we are willing to grow in perfection, holiness through humility, as St. James did, until we enter the Kingdom of Heaven.