Feast of Saint James, Apostle
July 25, 2023
Today’s Readings:
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/072523.cfm
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we celebrate St. James the Greater. As you know, there were two Aposltes named James. It can get confusing. I know because about half the men in my family are named James. It’s hard to call out to one of them at a family reunion because four or five people will answer when you yell, “Hey, Jim!”
So tradition has solved the St. James name problem by designating one as “the Greater” and one as “the Less”, descriptors based on age not importance. Today we celebrate James the Greater.
Mary Salome and Zebedee with Sons James and John
according to Hans Seuss Kolmback – c.1511
(Love the hat, or what? And, baby John is already holding the “cup”!)
James and his brother John were sons of Zebedee. In Mark 17, Jesus nicknames the two of them “Sons of Thunder”, so he must have had some early insight into their fiery nature. That nature was clearly displayed after the Transfiguration when Jesus began his final journey to Jerusalem. He had sent the disciples ahead to prepare an overnight stay in a Samaritan village, but the villagers rejected Jesus. This made the Zebedee boys mad so they asked Jesus:
… the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem.
Luke 9:53-56
When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked,
“Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?”
But Jesus turned and rebuked them.
Then he and his disciples went to another village.
You know what, I really like these guys! James and his brother John were all-in to Jesus and the Gospel. Their thundery enthusiasm got convoluted at times but, by word and example, Jesus continued to redirect their immense energy toward God’s Will.
I like their mother too. She had her own kind of fire and wanted the best for her boys as today’s Gospel indicates:
The mother of the sons of Zebedee approached Jesus with her sons
Matthew 20:20-21
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.”
With a surface reading of this passage, we might consider Mrs. Zebedee a little dense or arrogant. But Jesus simply responded by reminding her that her sons too, like him, would experience suffering before any heavenly reward.
The Gospel does not record Mrs. Zebedee’s response, whether she was miffed, chastened, frightened, or apologetic. What later chapters do record is that she got the message and embraced it. Of all the disciples she, with only a few other brave women and her boy John, showed up at the foot of the cross.
Where our man James the Greater was on that Good Friday we do not know. But he certainly stuck with Jesus in the long run.
The Zebedee Family, with its many Gospel appearances, can teach us so much about relationship with Jesus, about maturing slowly – sometimes haltingly – in Gospel faith, and about long-term fidelity to God’s Will. Let us pray with them today.
Poetry: from The Parables of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, c.1763
PARABLE LXIII.
The two Sons of Zebedee.
The spouse of Zebedee, that bare
The sons of Thunder, made a pray'r,
As she to Christ adoring came;
And Jesus said, What would the dame?
‘Grant me, O Lord, that either son
‘Be with thee in thy kingdom; one
‘Upon thy right hand to appear,
‘The other on the left as near.’
But Jesus answer'd their desire,
‘Ye know not what ye would require.
‘Do ye yourselves of strength believe.
‘The cup I drink of to receive?
‘And in that baptism be baptiz'd,
‘Which is for Christ himself devis'd?’
O Lord, we do, they answer make.
‘Ye shall indeed my cup partake,
‘Be baptiz'd in my baptism too;
‘But 'tis not of my gifts to you,
‘On right or left to place, but theirs
‘For whom my heav'nly Sire prepares’
But when this thing was told the ten,
They were enrag'd at both the men:
But Jesus call'd them all, and said,
‘Ye know the Gentiles chuse a HEAD,
‘And that great prince that holds the reins,
‘Will plead a merit for his pains:
‘But with you it shall not be so;
‘Who would be great, he shall be low,
‘And he th'aspiring chief of all
‘A lord at ev'ry servant's call.
‘'Tis with the Son of Man the same,
‘To serve, and not be serv'd, he came;
‘A minister of no esteem,
‘Which dies the myriads to redeem.’
When Christ the multitudes had fed
With God's good fishes and his bread,
At once so great was his renown,
The people proffer'd him a crown,
From which in haste the Lord withdrew
To better points he had in view.
Christians must honour and obey
Such men as bear the sov'reign sway.
But, in respect of each to each,
The Lord and his apostles teach,
That we should neither load nor bind,
But be distributive and kind
Music: Congaudeant Catholici from the Codex Calixtinus – Music for the Feast of St. James the Apostle
The Codex Calixtinus (or Codex Compostellus) is a manuscript that is the main element of the 12th-century Liber Sancti Jacobi (‘Book of Saint James’), a pseudepigraph whose likely author is the French scholar Aymeric Picaud. The codex was intended as an anthology of background detail and advice for pilgrims following the Way of Saint James to the shrine of the apostle Saint James the Great, located in the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, Galicia. The collection includes sermons, reports of miracles and liturgical texts associated with Saint James, and a set of polyphonic musical pieces. In it are also found descriptions of the route, works of art to be seen along the way, and the customs of the local people.
Three parts of the Codex Calixtinus include music: Book I, Appendix I, and Appendix II. These passages are of great interest to musicologists as they include early examples of polyphony. (Wikipedia)
Today’s selection is the Congaudeant Catholici. I could not find an English translation of the lyrics but, for the Latin scholars reading here, go to it with the text below! For the rest of us, it’s just a beautiful ancient melody to pray with.
Latin text
Congaudeant catholici,
letentur cives celici
Refrain: die ista
Clerus pulcris carminibus
studeat atque cantibus.
Hec est dies laudabilis,
divina luce nobilis.
Vincens herodis gladium,
accepit vite bravium.
Qua iacobus palatia,
ascendit ad celestia.
Ergo carenti termino
benedicamus domino.
Magno patri familias
solvamus laudis gratias.
Lavish Mercy 