Gospel 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.”
Beloved in the Lord, today July 25th, 2018, the Holy Church celebrates the feast of St James the brother of St John. He was one of the twelve disciples of Jesus.
According to the account of Luke 5:1-11, he and his brother John were called by Jesus while fixing their net at the lake of Gennesaret.
James belonged to the group of the three privileged disciples whom Jesus admitted to witnessing some very significant and exclusive moments in his life (raising of Jairus’ daughter, transfiguration, agony in the Garden).
He who initially had requested through his mother to be seated with his brother next to the master in his kingdom (today’s Gospel) was precisely the first to drink the chalice of the passion.
Herod Agrippa, I singled him out to be beheaded not just because he was an authoritative figure in Jerusalem but because of his evident zeal.
Three Important points for us today:
- St. James was among the three disciples very close to Jesus without prejudice to the rest. In human logical reasoning, one would expect him to enjoy some special treatments.
Ironically, he was the first to be martyred among the twelve disciples (Acts 12:1-3).
Take note, after him, Peter was arrested, imprisoned and miraculously delivered. Why was James killed and Peter delivered? Again, his brother John was never even killed, he escaped death severally. Why will God allow James to be selected for prompt martyrdom? Why James? That is the way we are often tempted to reason. We always ask God “why me?” Why should this happen to me, to my children, to my family, why oh why?
St. James’ life should teach us something important – the Lord is the one who determines our life’s journey, his plans for us may be strange but they can only be for our good (Jer. 29:11, also Ps. 16:6 – the Lot marked out for me is my delight). You may not understand why you are where you are now but thank God.
Some of you listening to me right now, your whole story appears to be like a seasonal tragic movie, it doesn’t make sense to you, you can’t even fathom why God is treating you this way, your cross may be unreasonable to you, but listen to me, if you bear it with trust in God’s goodness, with gratitude and surrender, the end will always be glorious and God’s goodness will be justified.
Let me quickly tell you what the Holy Spirit taught me yesterday while I was reflecting on an event. The Holy Spirit told me “in life God will not preserve you from all troubles and dangers but if you trust in Him through your troubles and afflictions, at last, you will be glad you did.”
- The martyrdom of St James teaches us that, though our lives are important, our salvation ranks higher.
Our lives are so important; we all have the instinct of self-preservation. However, as important as life is, our salvation is more important than the prolongation of temporal life. Life is not more important than Christ. When we have to choose one and lose the other. Let us rather chose Christ because it is only in choosing him that we can have life in abundance. As St Paul says, “for me life is Christ and death is gain” (Phil 1:21).
James like any other person loved his life but he loved Christ more. No one can tell, we may find ourselves in a situation whereby we must make a fundamental choice between preservation of life by denying Christ or acknowledging Christ and losing our much-cherished life suddenly with all the prospects and promises it holds. It is a choice between temporal life and eternal life.
Have you ever thought of this possibility? Will you be bold enough to choose death so that you may live eternally or you will choose to stay alive and die eternally eventually?
- Finally, St James was a zealous disciple. His zeal made him outstanding and attracted the attention of the enemies of Christ to Him.
In fact, according to tradition, after the ascension of Jesus, he hurriedly went to Spain to proclaim Christ before returning to Jerusalem where he was martyred. The key word here is zeal. “Zeal” is a missing word in our world today. A lot of Christians today are suffering from poverty of zeal, low zeal for God and the things of God, minimum zeal to spread the faith, zeal to work for God, zeal to live lives as witnesses, zeal to better the lives of others.
Many of us have a mortuary spirituality, our passion is in recession, many priests are also lacking in zeal, seminarians want to become priests with no zeal to serve God, many who are elected into offices in the Church rejoice in the office but are lacking in zeal and vision needed to make an impact.
Unfortunately, the devil is zealous to execute his hidden agenda and we want to match him by lukewarmness, indifference and spiritual slumber. I ask you today, are you a zealous Christian or a cold/lukewarm believer?
Note: No Christian can make a meaningful impact in this generation; no Christian can face the devil and triumph in this atheistic world without zeal and burning passion for God
St. James…Pray for us.
Sermon preached by Rev. Fr. Emmanuel kami of St. Michael Catholic Parish, Isolo-Opin, Ilorin Diocese, Kwara State, Nigeria on the Feast of St. James, Wednesday, July 25, 2018.