Thursday in the 16th Week of Ordinary Time, July 25, 2024

The Feast of St. James the Greater, Apostle

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.”

James the son of the fisherman Zebedee and his wife Salome, the older brother of John, was probably under twenty years old when the Lord Jesus called him to be an Apostle.  He had not yet married and worked alongside his father and younger brother, fishing the Sea of Galilee.  He knew Simon and Andrew, the sons of Jona, whom St. Luke describes as partners with him and his father and brother (cf. Luke 5, 7).  He was an impulsive young man who locked onto causes and pursued them with zeal.  For this reason, the Lord called him and his similarly disposed brother John “the sons of thunder”.  The Lord showed his appreciation for his faith in including him in a special sub-group of the Apostles whom he took with him when he raised the dead daughter of the leader of Capernaum’s synagogue, and when the Lord was transfigured.  Jesus also took him with when he prayed at the Garden of Gethsemane.  Fearless in preaching the Gospel, he was the first of the Apostles to be martyred, slain by the order of Herod Agrippa.  According to a later tradition, St. James preached the Gospel in Spain before returning to Judea, where he was martyred.

“The mother of the sons of Zebedee approached Jesus with her sons and did him homage, wishing to ask him for something.”  The lists of the female disciples of the Lord found in the Gospels give reason to think that Salome, the mother of James and John, was the sister of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  If this is so, it might explain her boldness in asking Jesus for high positions when he restored the Kingdom of Israel.  This would explain the harsh reaction of the other Apostles, who would have known of this relationship And who would have protested at James and John asserting familial privilege through their mother.

“Command that these two sons of mine sit, one at your right and the other at your left, in your Kingdom.”  Salome, like most of the Lord’s disciples at this time, believed that the Lord would restore the Kingdom of David, and she asks for high positions for her sons in his future government.  It is hard to see what basis she thought she had to do this and receive a favorable reply unless it is true that she was related to the Lord in some way.  The ambition for her sons, who surely prevailed on her to make this request, gives us insight into their character at this point on their young lives.  “Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink?”  The Lord turns to the sons.  His question might be more precisely translated from the Greek as: “Can you drink the chalice that I am about to drink?”  That is, his drinking the chalice is imminent.  As they are nearing Jerusalem where he will give up his life, the Lord is asking them if they are prepared to go through everything he will go through, whatever that may be.  In the Garden of Gethsemane, the Lord would pray: “My Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26, 39).  Since the Lord took James and John with him close to the place where he prayed, we might wonder if the two Apostles heard him, and if they connected the chalice they were so sure they could drink with the chalice the Lord was about to drink.

“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.”  Here Jesus confronts the brothers with the true nature of the Kingdom of God, where charity rules, not power based on fear.  

The Lord’s answer to James and John reminds us that God’s ways are not our ways (cf. Isaiah 55, 8), and that his Kingdom is truly not of this world (cf. John 18, 36).