Feast of S. James the Apostle

Jeremiah, 45:1-5
Acts, 11:27-12:3
Matthew, 20:20-28

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Last Thursday we celebrated the Feast of S. Mary Magdalene. In recent decades, the Church has primarily honored Mary for being the first witness of the Resurrection. Unlike all but one of the apostles, she courageously was at the Crucifixion and Burial of our Lord, and then on Easter morning went to the grave to anoint his corpse, but found him risen from the dead. Until relatively recently, the Church had mostly honored Mary for being a penitent sinner, presumably a prostitute whose encounter with God's mercy in Jesus Christ changed her life. It's why we, too, follow Christ. We have experienced his love and know that he's eager to forgive - again and again.

The gospel last Thursday was S. Luke's version of the story of the woman who came to Jesus and cleaned and kissed and anointed his feet. (Lk 7:36-50) Although the woman's identity is not explicitly stated, the Church has regarded this woman to be Mary Magdalene. After Mary anointed Jesus' feet, a Pharisee questioned Jesus: why have you allowed this sinner to touch you? Jesus responded by telling a parable of two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty, and both had nothing to pay creditor, but the creditor forgave them both. Jesus asked the Pharisee, "Which of the two will be more grateful? Which will love the creditor more?" The Pharisee answered correctly that it would be the one who owed five hundred denarii. Jesus then associated the penitent woman with the debtor who owed five hundred denarii and said, "This woman has been forgiven much, and she loves much. He who is forgiven little, loves little."

Two things about this gospel particularly struck me at the time. First, notice the pattern: the creditor forgives first; the debtor does nothing to receive this forgiveness. God forgives, and his forgiveness blossoms into gratitude in the heart of the forgiven, and in the case of Mary, the gratitude leads to good works. It is not our righteousness that leads to forgiveness. The gospel is about what God has done for us and is doing for us. It's not about us.

Being a Christian does not start with being moral and holy. We hope that we'll grow in these. Being a Christian starts with God loving us, and once we recognize God's love for us we learn that human life does not work without God, that it's a mess without God, that there's a hole without God. Mary Magdalene came to Jesus because her life was a mess. She experienced God's love and forgiveness. She responded in good works. God's involvement with human beings has the same pattern throughout history. God freed Israel from slavery in Egypt, and then he gave the Ten Commandments. God's love for us is always first. Our purpose is to try to respond to his love with love.

That leads to the second implication of this gospel story. The saints love much because they've been forgiven much. The saints are sinners. They sinned like we sin. The gospels give us few stories about S. James, but in them we see that he's an impetuous, self-absorbed man, that he's a sinner.

James and his brother S. John were impulsive hotheads. Jesus teased them about this. He called them 'Boanerges," that is 'Sons of Thunder.' (Mk 3:17) A month ago we heard Luke's story of a Samaritan village denying hospitality to Jesus and his disciples. (Lk 9:54ff) Offended by the villagers, James and John asked Jesus, "Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" James and John are quick to seek revenge and retribution; they seem impulsive and want to act on anger, not charity.

In today's gospel, S. Matthew is embarrassed for James and John. S. Matthew re-writes S. Mark's version of the story in which James and John ask Jesus to sit on either side of him in his Kingdom. Unlike Mark, Matthew says that James' and John's mother, Mama Zebedee, made that calculating, self-seeking request. Matthew has a hard time believing that James and John, two of the first followers of Jesus, two of the three to go up the mountain and to experience God's presence in Jesus in the Transfiguration, two of those closest, most intimate to Jesus, that these two would so misunderstand the gospel. Jesus rebuked them: "You've seen how godless rulers throw their weight around, how quickly a little power goes to their heads. It's not going to be that way with you. Whoever wants to be great must become a servant." (Mt 20:25-26)

James and John were seeking worldly honor and power and glory and pleasure. They had not left all when they left their fishing nets to follow Jesus. They are scheming to get what they want, not what God wants; they are scheming to advance above the other disciples. James and John have made the same mistake each of us makes. We think that freedom and peace and glory come from having power and control. Like them, we often assume that self-fulfillment comes from following the voice within, from living to satisfy ourselves. The good news is that true freedom and peace and glory come from serving others, giving our lives to God, loving one another, seeking God's purpose, not our own. It comes from dying to ourselves and rising with Christ. I am a Christian because I know the world's way does not work. It's a big fat lie, and it beguiles us all the time.

Jesus asks James and John, "Can you drink of the cup that I am to drink?" James and John say, "Of course we can." They think that means joyfully quaffing wine at the messianic banquet. Jesus knows that it's a cup of suffering, not of pleasure. It means sharing Christ's suffering. James and John don't want that. It's the same cup that Jesus prays in Gethsemane that will pass from him, but God's will be done. Instead of watching and praying with Jesus in Gethsemane, James and John had fallen asleep. Then they abandoned Jesus in his last hour. "Can you drink of the cup that I am to drink?" James and John should've said, "No." The irony is ripe: Jesus is reluctant, dreading to receive the cup, and James and John are eager for it. The gospel, the cup of salvation, is not about worldly power, assertion, and privilege. It's about humble service and love.

Like each of us, James has many limitations. He follows Jesus from the beginning, but his understanding of the gospel, of Jesus' ministry, is shallow, imperfect, distorted. His understanding of God is what he thinks God should be, rather than letting God be God, rather than being a God who suffers and serves and forgives his beloved creatures. James did not want this God. James left his nets, but to follow his image of God, a false god. But to those who seek, those who ask, God shows us his truth. God that had many surprises in store for James, and James learned from them.

As James followed Jesus - really as James bumbled after Jesus, his understanding of God began to mature. His spiritual life developed. The image of Christ grew in him. It grew so strong that eventually James would follow Christ in giving his life for us, for the Church. Today, we're wearing red - the color of martyrs, the color of their blood, the color of our Lord's cup. In the end, James followed Jesus all the way to the cross. James drank that cup of suffering so that we could hear the gospel, know Christ, leave the lies of the world behind us, and follow Christ. We're going to spend all our lives trying to follow Jesus. Each of us has left the nets and followed him, but like James we follow imperfectly. We're still entangled in the world's nets. The good news is that the communion of saints is not a fellowship of the righteous. It's a fellowship of sinners, of forgiven sinners.

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.