Churches of the Day

25/7 St James, Apostle, son of Zebedee, martyr

Saint of the Day:25/7 St James, Apostle, son of Zebedee and brother of John (called the greater),
He was the first of the Apostles to die, martyred by Herod Agrippa, c.44, 
C/f A short life of this saint can be found below today's Readings and Reflection.

FIRST READING

A reading from the second letter of St Paul to the Corinthians     4: 7-15
We carry with us in our body the death of Jesus.

We are only the earthenware jars that hold this treasure,
to make it clear that such an overwhelming power comes from God and not from us.
We are in difficulties on all sides, but never cornered;
we see no answer to our problems, but never despair;
we have been persecuted, but never deserted;
knocked down, but never killed;
always, wherever we may be, we carry with us in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus, too, may always be seen in our body.

Indeed, while we are still alive, we are consigned to our death every day, for the sake of Jesus, so that in our mortal flesh the life of Jesus, too, may be openly shown. So death is at work in us, but life in you.

But as we have the same spirit of faith that is mentioned in scripture -I believed, and therefore I spoke - we too believe and therefore we too speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus to life will raise us with Jesus in our turn, and put us by his side and you with us. You see, all this is for your benefit, so that the more grace is multiplied among people, the more thanksgiving there will be, to the glory of God.

The Word of the Lord.           Thanks be to God.

Responsorial Psalm        Ps 125: R/v 5
Response                               Those who are sowing in tears will sing when they reap.

1. When the Lord delivered Zion from bondage, it seemed like a dream.
Then was our mouth filled with laughter, on our lips there were songs.               Response

2. The heathens themselves said: 'What marvels the Lord worked for them!'
What marvels the Lord worked for us! Indeed we were glad.                                  Response

3. Deliver us, O Lord, from our bondage as streams in dry land.
Those who are sowing in tears will sing when they reap.                                         Response

4. They go out, they go out, full of tears, carrying seed for the sowing:
they come back, they come back, full of song, carrying their sheaves.                  Response

Gospel Acclamation         Jn 15: 16
Alleluia, alleluia!
I chose you from the world to go out and to bear fruit,
fruit that will last. says the Lord.
Alleluia!

Gospel 

The Lord be with you.                                And with your spirit
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew   20:20-28        Glory to you, O Lord
You shall drink my cup.

The mother of Zebedee's sons came with her sons to make a request of him, and bowed low; and he said to her, 'What is it you want?' She said to him, 'Promise that these two sons of mine may sit one at your right hand and the other at your left in your kingdom.'
'You do not know what you are asking' Jesus answered. 'Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink?'
They replied, 'We can.'
'Very well,' he said 'you shall drink my cup, but as for seats at my right hand and my left, these are not mine to grant; they belong to those to whom they have been allotted by my Father.'

When the other ten heard this they were indignant with the two brothers.
But Jesus called them to him and said,
'You know that among the pagans the rulers lord it over them, and their great men make their authority felt. This is not to happen among you.
No; anyone who wants to be great among you must be your servant, and anyone who wants to be first among you must be your slave, just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.'

The Gospel of the Lord.        Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Gospel Reflection     25th July,    Saint James, Apostle      Matthew 20:20-28

It may seem strange that the gospel reading chosen for the feast of Saint James, brother of John and son of Zebedee, is one that doesn’t reflect too well on him. Himself and John approach Jesus through their mother (in Mark’s gospel, they approach him directly) asking Jesus for the most honourable seats in Jesus’ kingdom, one on his right and the other on his left. The request reveals a failure to understand that the kingdom of God which Jesus came to proclaim bears no relationship to any earthly kingdom. As Jesus goes on to say to the other ten disciples, in earthly pagan kingdoms their rulers lord it over their subjects, making their authority felt. This is not how it is to be in the kingdom of God, nor in the community of Jesus’ disciples, the church, which is to be a beachhead for the kingdom.

In God’s kingdom and its earthly revelation, greatness consists not in honourable status expressing itself in oppressive rule but in self-giving service of God and God’s people, after the example of Jesus who came not to be served but to serve. Such self-giving service will often entail drinking the cup of suffering that Jesus had to drink. At this point in the gospel, Jesus is still struggling to convey his vision of leadership to the twelve, including James and John. Yet, perhaps the reason this gospel reading is chosen for the feast of Saint James is because he did go on to drink the cup that Jesus drank, in the service of God and God’s people. According to the Acts of the Apostles, ‘King Herod laid violent hands upon some who belonged to the church. He had James, the brother of John, killed with the sword’ (12:1-2). The story of James shows us that our past failings do not define our relationship with the Lord. With his help we can grow in our relationship with him. We can keep moving from living towards ourselves to living towards him, so that, eventually, in the words of today’s first reading, ‘the life of Jesus may always be seen in our body’.

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The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published 1966 by Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd. and used with the permission of the publishers. http://dltbooks.com/
The Scripture Reflection is made available with our thanks from his book Reflections on the Weekday Readings : The Word is near to you, on your lips and in your heart by Martin Hogan and published by Messenger Publications c/f www.messenger.ie/bookshop/

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Saint of the Day: July 25, St James, Apostle, martyr
James was born at Bethsaida in Galilee, a son of Zebedee and a brother of John, (the evangelist), a fisherman, summoned by Jesus They were referred to as the "Sons of Thunder" (Mark 3:17). Honoured as a 'favoured' apostles with Peter and they was present at the Transfiguration, the raising of the daughter of Jairus, and the agony in the garden. James was the first apostle put to death for the Christian faith, beheaded by Herod.

James, sometimes called the Greater, is probably best known today through the Camino, or the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, Spain.

Patrick Duffy records here what the New Testament tells us about Saint James and some of the legends told from Spain.

Son of Zebedee
James, sometimes known as the Great, by contrast with James the Less, the son of Alphaeus (feast 3rd May) Ss Philip and James are described in the Gospels along with John, the evangelist, as "a son of Zebedee", a fisherman. Jesus recruited both of them along with Simon and his brother Andrew by the Sea of Galilee. They were in their helping their father mend the nets. They left him in the boat with the men he employed and went after Jesus (Mark 1:16-20).

"Sons of Thunder"
James and John are called 'Boanerges' or "Sons of Thunder" (Mark 3:17). This seems to stem from the incident reported in Luke 9:54 where a Samaritan village would not receive Jesus because he was making for Jerusalem. James and John asked Jesus if he wanted them to call down fire from heaven to burn the Samaritans up!

Peter, James and John
On three important occasions in the life of Jesus in the New Testament, James is numbered with Peter and John in a favoured threesome: the first of these is in raising the daughter of Jairus to life (Mk 5:35-43); the second is the Transfiguration (Mk 9:2-8); the third is during his agony in Gethsemane (Mk 14:32-42). The next mention of him in the New Testament is in Acts 12:2 where he is mentioned in the context of the arrest and miraculous escape of Peter as the first apostle put to death for the Christian faith by Herod Agrippa I (king of Judaea and Samaria 41-44 AD).

St James, Moorslayer
An even later tradition has James miraculously appearing during the battle of Clavijo in 844 to fight for the Christian army led by Ramiro I of Asturias against the Muslims led by the Emir of Córdoba. It is from this tradition arose of Santiago Matamoros (St James the Moorslayer), celebrated in Spanish art and literature. This is mentioned by Cervantes in Don Quixote and is celebrated in numerous statues in churches along the route of the Camino.

Compostela
There is a legend that St. James the Greater, having preached Christianity in Spain, returned to Judea and was put to death by order of Herod. His body was miraculously translated to Iria Flavia in the northwest of Spain, and later to Compostela, which town, especially during the Middle Ages, became one of the most famous places of pilgrimage in the world. The vow of making a pilgrimage to Compostela to honour the sepulchre of St. James is still reserved to the pope, who alone of his own or ordinary right can dispense from it. In the twelfth century was founded the Order of Knights of St. James of Compostela.

The legend or tradition about St James in Spain comes from the 12th-century Historia Compostellana commissioned by bishop Diego Gelmírez. Two elements are central to it:
first, that St James preached the gospel in Iberia as well as in the Holy Land; and
second, that after his martyrdom at the hands of Herod Agrippa I, his disciples carried his body by sea to Iberia, where they landed at Padrón on the coast of Galicia, and took it inland for burial at Santiago de Compostela.

Compostela (Giacomo Postelo: James the Apostle)
The authenticity of the sacred relic of Compostela has been questioned and is still doubted.
Even if St. James the Greater did not preach the Christian religion in Spain, his body may have been brought to Compostela, and this was already the opinion of Notker.
According to another tradition, the relics of the Apostle are kept in the church of St Saturnin at Toulouse (France), but it is not improbable that such sacred relics should have been divided between two churches. A strong argument in favour of the authenticity of the sacred relics of Compostela is the Bull of Leo XIII, "Omnipotens Deus," of 1 November, 1884.

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Memorable Saying for Today

The one who does not practice mercy will have his judgment without mercy.
Mercy triumphs over judgment.

~ St James ~

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- Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year A

FIRST READING

A reading from the First Book of Kings 3:5. 7-12
You have asked for a discerning judgement for yourself, here and now I do what you ask.

 At Gibeon the Lord appeared in a dream to Solomon during the night. God said,
'Ask what you would like me to give you'.
Solomon replied,
Lord my God, you have made your servant king in succession to David my father. But I am a very young man, unskilled in leadership. Your servant finds himself in the midst of this people of yours that you have chosen, a people so many its number cannot be counted or reckoned.
Give your servant a heart to understand how to discern between good and evil, for who could govern this people of yours that is so great?'
It pleased the Lord that Solomon should have asked for this.
'Since you have asked for this' the Lord said 'and not asked for long life for yourself or riches or the lives of your enemies, but have asked for a discerning judgement for yourself, here and now I do what you ask.
I give you a heart wise and shrewd as none before you has had and none will have after you.

The Word of the Lord.              Thanks be to God.

Responsorial Psalm            Ps 118: 57. 72. 76-77. 127-130 R/ v 97
Response                                Lord how I love your law!

1. My part, I have resolved, O Lord, is to obey your word.
The law from your mouth means more to me. than silver and gold.                 Response

2. Let your love be ready to console me by your promise to your servant.
Let your love come to me and I shall live for your law is my delight.               Response

3. That is why I love your commands more than finest gold.
That is why I rule my life by your precepts: I hate false ways.                            Response

4. Your will is wonderful indeed; therefore I obey it.
The unfolding of your word gives light and teaches the simple.                         Response


SECOND READING

A reading from the first letter of St Paul to Romans           8:28-30
God intends us to become true images of his Son.

We know that by turning everything to their good God co-operates with all those who love him, with all those that he has called according to his purpose. They are the ones he chose specially long ago and intended to become true images of his Son, so that his Son might be the eldest of many brothers. He called those he intended for this; those he called he justified, and with those he justified he shared his glory. 

The Word of the Lord.                      Thanks be to God.

Gospel Acclamation                  Jn 15: 15
Alleluia, alleluia!
I call you friends, says the Lord,
because I have made known to you everything I have learnt from my Father.
Alleluia!

Or                                                    Mt 11:25
Alleluia, alleluia!
Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
for revealing the mysteries of the kingdom to mere children.
Alleluia!

GOSPEL  

The Lord be with you                        And with your spirit.
A reading from the Gospel according to Matthew    13:44-52      Glory to you, O Lord
He sells everything he owns and buys it.

Jesus spoke to the crowds:
'The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field which someone has found; he hides it again, goes off happy, sells everything he owns and buys the field.

'Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls; when he finds one of great value he goes and sells everything he owns and buys it.

'Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea that brings in a haul of all kinds. When it is full, the fishermen haul it ashore; then, sitting down, they collect the good ones in a basket and throw away those that are no use. This is how it will be at the end of time: the angels will appear and separate the wicked from the just to throw them into the blazing furnace where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.

'Have you understood all this?'
They said, 'Yes'.
And he said to them, 'Well then, every scribe who becomes a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out from his storeroom things both new and old'.

The Gospel of the Lord    Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

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Shorter form of the Gospel

GOSPEL

The Lord be with you                         And with your spirit.
A reading from the Gospel according to Matthew   13:44-52        Glory to you, O Lord
He sells everything he owns and buys it.

Jesus spoke to the crowds:
'The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field which someone has found; he hides it again, goes off happy, sells everything he owns and buys the field.

'Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls; when he finds one of great value he goes and sells everything he owns and buys it.

The Gospel of the Lord.      Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

For homily resources for this Sunday's Gospel click here: https://www.catholicireland.net/sunday-homily/



The scripture readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published by Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd and used with the permission of the publishers.