Homily for the Feast of St. James, Apostle

Our Gospel passage today gives us a glimpse of the human tendency to seek status and importance. In the instance we witness today, we see that it is the mother of two of Jesus’ disciples who seeks this for her sons. So, we understand that sometimes, this tendency can be one of pride, if not for ourselves, then for others whom we love. And the offense taken by the other Apostles is just another instance of the tendency to want to appear important in the eyes of others.

 

We see this tendency so often in the media, in government, and in many areas of life, where people want to appear more important and more powerful than others.

 

But Jesus works to teach everyone in today’s story that such status-seeking has no place in the lives of any of His disciples; that to truly follow Him, they must drink of the chalice of suffering from which He drinks; that, like Him, they must serve and not seek to be served. Humility and putting others before ourselves are ways to true greatness, the kind of greatness to which we are all called: the greatness of being born in the image of God, following His ways, and returning home to our Father at the end of time, with nothing except the fruits of our actions on earth.+