The Christian life is a call to identify with the suffering Jesus. This makes the Christian a sign of contradiction in a world that seeks only personal comfort. Consciousness of this vocation makes the individual Christian to overcome obstacles that ordinarily seem insurmountable. Neither personal weakness nor external discouragements deters the genuine Christian from living a life of total service to God and humanity. This is summed up in the life of St. James, the Apostle, whose feast the Church celebrates today.
James and his brother, John, accepted the challenge to drink the cup that Jesus would drink, and this means sharing in the mission and death of Christ. It also implies passing from suffering to glory. The saints suffered for Christ in all things because they were conscious of a great treasure prepared for them. They were imbued with a vision that the apostle Paul speaks of in 1 Cor 2:9: “What no eye has seen and no ear has heard, what the mind of man cannot visualise, all that God has prepared for those who love him.”
Call and Mission of St. James
The historical life of James remains obscure, as not much is known about him and his apostolic mission apart from the few appearances in the Gospels. However, the little we know of him speaks volumes of his real personality. James was the brother of John and both were the two known sons of Zebedee. Jesus called them while they were at their fishing business with their father Zebedee. Their mother is identified in the Gospel tradition as Salome, one of the women very close to Jesus. A tradition has it that Salome was the sister of Mary, mother of Jesus (John 19:25; cf. Matt 27:56; Mark 15:40; 16:1). This could explain why the two disciples were so close to Jesus and also why their mother could have been believed to have easy access to Jesus. James and John were among the first disciples called by Jesus and, together with Peter, they were the three disciples closest to Jesus in very significant moments in the Gospel accounts, and were conventionally called the Apostles of the Inner Circle.
James was also called James the Greater, to distinguish him from another Apostle called James who was the son of Alphaeus. And, also, to express his preeminent position in offering his life for Jesus. Significantly, James became the first of the Apostles to die as a martyr. His death by martyrdom can be seen as being prophesied in today’s Gospel from Matt 20:20-28 as their mother comes to Jesus to solicit for political positions for her two sons, James and John.
In the ensuing dialogue, Jesus lets the two brothers understand the conditions for occupying exalted positions in his kingdom. He alerts them of the cup that he is to drink, which actually means his suffering and death. In accepting this condition, the two disciples, wittingly or unwittingly, signed their death warrants. But the great thing is that they were ready to be always at the side of Jesus, no matter what it entails.
James was so imbued with the love of Jesus that he was ready to face any obstacle in witnessing to him. According to tradition, he preached the gospel in Grenada, Spain, and upon return to Jerusalem, he was killed by King Herod Agrippa I (grandson of Herod the Great) to please the Jews who were very hostile to the emergent Christian group (Acts 12:1).
Courage to Witness to Christ in a Hostile World
The world in which James and his colleagues preached was one in which many powerful forces persecuted the Christian movement. Yet they were not deterred. They had an indomitable will and spirit to proclaim the message of Christ. But one may ask, what really gave them such courage and strength?
The first reading of today from 2 Cor 4:7-15 says it all: It was the power of God mysteriously at work in them. As Christians, we carry a great power despite our weak frame. Paul describes it as a treasure in earthenware vessels. This mysterious power makes Paul declare with great enthusiasm: “We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body” (4:8-10).
This passage exposes the frailty of the human nature but goes on to show that the ability to endure all forms of persecution and suffering does not come from human power but from God Himself.
The Empowering Power of God
The story of St. James the Apostle teaches us that the power of God does not necessarily prevent us from suffering or from being persecuted or from facing misfortunes in our lives. Sometimes some people erroneously think that because they work for God, no evil or suffering will touch them. Rather, the power of God gives us the courage and inner force to face such sufferings and emerge triumphantly. May this divine power continue to guide and sustain us in all our trials and struggles!
