Feast of St. James Homily

1st Reading: 2 Cor 4:7-15

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 126:1-6

Gospel: Mt 20:20-28

What does it mean for us to be great? People often like to debate who the greatest sport star ever was for a certain sport. In the wake of the Olympics we have many people who are trying to prove how great they are because they plan on winning the gold medal. Surely if a person was to win a gold medal in the Olympics we would be forced to admit that they must be great. Of course in using great in this manner we are paying attention to the great talents that these people have in overcoming others in a certain event to prove that they have the best attributes to make them great.

Our Gospel gives us a different glimpse into the reality of what makes one great. This list that is given to us does not contain winning sports events and thus becoming the greatest at something. We are instead given a list of attributes which shows our need to lower ourselves to others especially to Christ. This call for humility to enter into our lives is a very different definition to great then we would give to the debate of who is the best at a certain field. This form of greatness is placing Christ at the head of our lives and thus allowing Him to work within our lives instead of trying to prove that we are great by doing it ourselves.

Today we celebrate the Feast of Saint James, who was an apostle and martyr. We can defiantly say that this man was great because he was able to live out these attributes of greatness within his life. Saint James was able to be a servant of the Gospel and to go into the world and live out this service to all people whom he encountered. His service to the Gospel eventually brought him to death from the sword of Herod making him the first martyr from among the twelve disciples of Christ. May his example encourage us to search for greatness in our lives by lowering ourselves to Christ through humility, so that we may rejoice with Him continually.