Tuesday in the Sixteenth Week of Ordinary Time, July 25, 2023

The Feast of St. James the Great

Matthew 20, 20-28

The mother of the sons of Zebedee approached Jesus with her sons and did him homage, wishing to ask him for something. He said to her, “What do you wish?” She answered him, “Command that these two sons of mine sit, one at your right and the other at your left, in your Kingdom.” Jesus said in reply, “You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink?” They said to him, “We can.” He replied, “My chalice you will indeed drink, but to sit at my right and at my left, this is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.” When the ten heard this, they became indignant at the two brothers. But Jesus summoned them and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and the great ones make their authority over them felt. But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

St. James, the son of a fisherman named Zebedee and older brother of John, was probably in his later teens when Jesus called him to be an Apostle.  Neither he nor his brother were married.  Their mother followed Jesus and the Apostles, with a group of several women who provided for them “out of their means” (Luke 8, 3).  Jesus included James in a select group of Apostles along with Peter and John, allowing them to witness him raising the dead, glorified in the Transfiguration, and praying in the Garden of Gethsemane.  The Lord gave a nickname to James and his brother, calling them “the sons of thunder” (Mark 3, 17), and we see something of the youthful ferocity of his zeal when he and John ask Jesus if they should call down fire upon a Samaritan town that refuses them entry (cf. Luke 9, 54).  James was the first of the Apostles to die for Jesus, beheaded at the order of King Herod (cf. Acts 12, 2) in the year 44.  He is called “the great” probably in comparison with the height of James the son of Alphaeus.  There is an old, though not ancient, tradition that James the Great preached in Spain and that his relics are buried at Compostela in the north of that country.

“The mother of the sons of Zebedee approached Jesus with her sons and did him homage, wishing to ask him for something.”  The Gospel of St. Mark has it that they two Apostles asked Jesus their favor directly, but this may be because St. Peter did not remember their mother doing this.  At any rate, it does not change the meaning of the passage.  Here though, Matthew’s specific mention of their mother (whose name seems to have been Salome) indicates 1) their relative youth and 2) the mother’s prominent place among the women serving the Lord and his Apostles, or at least her estimation of her place.  Rather than embarrassment at the intervention of their mother on their behalf, the brother James and John show their eagerness to rule with Jesus, to fight for him, and even to die for him.  When he asks them if this is true, they readily reply, “We can.”  As in,“We are able” or “We are capable”.  

The Lord’s answer must have dismayed them a little: “My chalice you will indeed drink, but to sit at my right and at my left, this is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.”  He is saying that they will “fight” for him and suffer for him (and James will die as a martyr for him) but the Father will award the places beside him.  Jesus foretells their future on earth but tells them that their place in heaven will be determined by his Father.  His response shows the Lord contending with their firm mindset that Jesus was going to overthrow the Romans.  They were asking for places in the government that he would establish in Jerusalem.  This sets the stage for his teaching about true use of authority: “Whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave.”  Authority — “greatness” — provides a person with the knowledge and the resources to serve in the most effective way.  It is not for self-indulgence: “The rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and the great ones make their authority over them felt.”  It is for service, and the Lord presents himself as the greatest model of service: “The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  This is an essential revelation.  He, the Messiah, the Son of Man of whom the Prophet Daniel said, “His power is an everlasting power that shall not be taken away: and his kingdom . . . shall not be destroyed” (Daniel 7, 14), did not come to use his power and authority to conquer earthly kingdoms but to “ransom” many with his own life.  The measure of greatness is service just as the greatness of a man is not in grandiose displays of strength but in restraint.

We ask St. James to intercede for us that we too might be able to drink the chalice of the Lord and so come into his Kingdom.  We pray, too, to St. Christopher, whose feast also occurs on this day, for safe travels in this world and a safe passage to heaven in the next.