Daily word, 25 Jul 19

St. James, Apostle (25 Jul 2019)

2Co 4. 7-15; Ps 125; Mt 20. 20-28

Homily of Fr. Paul Panaretos, S.J., 8-day directed retreat

Portals of Power

Ambition is a slippery attitude. Without drive we don’t get up in the morning; without aspiration we achieve little, if anything. Things become slippery as we notice others aiming high and especially nearing or attaining success. It seemed no different for 10 apostles noticing James and his brother John.

The sons of Zebedee left everything to follow Jesus.¹ Jesus entrusted himself to them. Aware of the shocking way his life and ministry would end, Jesus took James, John and Peter and was transfigured before them.² Did the brothers misconstrue the brightness on that mountain as kudos they had won for following Jesus?

Perhaps they had. They once wanted to rest in that brightness forever: to sit, one at [Jesus’] right hand and one at [his] left, in his kingdom. Their attitude lit a fire of indignation under their colleagues. Jesus measured healthy drive and aspiration differently. Jesus was their measure.

Were they ambitious—grasping and striving rather than straining toward a goal? Perhaps; yet no one could call the Zebedee boys disloyal. Jesus named them well, sons of Thunder.³ They felt they could command it and more. When Samaritans blocked Jesus’ way to Jerusalem through their territory James and his brother wanted to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them if Jesus would let them. Elijah had done it⁴; why not them? Anything for their Rabbi.

James and his brother did give all in witness to Christ. They learned the way of witness to Christ is strong but not bombastic; clear but not flashy. They personalized Paul’s experience: “The power is limitless, but it is stored in very unlikely receptacles,” an early 20^th-C commentator expressed it.⁵—like clay pots. I long focused on pots more than clay; I missed that limitless power includes creative power. Witnesses to Christ participate in creating: through our cracks shines the bright creative power of God. Before likening himself and all witnesses to Christ as clay pots Paul had cited Genesis: God who said, “Out of darkness light will shine,”…has shone in our hearts to bring to light the knowledge of the glory of God on the face of Christ.⁶

As clay pots are disposable James and his brother were, like Paul, rejected, persecuted. “In them is the paradox of Jesus’ death and resurrection found in a new bodily expression…: “Death is at work in us, but life in you.”⁷

The Christian paradox empowers us not to fear our cracks. Rather, we invite our triune God into them to transform them into portals of life for others. Christ Jesus welcomes us to participate already in the new creation Christ’s risen life is. Christ welcomes us to enjoy it fully after a life of following and learning him as our measure.

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1. Matthew 4.22.
2. Matthew 17.1-13.
3. Mark 3.17.
4. Luke 9.54; 1Kings 18.36-39.
5. A.T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament, Accordance electronic ed. (Altamonte Springs: OakTree Software, 2001), paragraph 4202. Citing Alfred Plummer, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Second Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians, (New York: C.Scribner, 1915), 126.
6. 2Corinthians 4.6.
7. Luke Timothy Johnson. The Writings of the New Testament (Kindle Locations 4882-4883). Kindle Edition.

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Wiki-images by: DD from Male, Maldives Light rays filtered from above CC BY-SA 2.0; Will Taylor, Mary Tuthill Lindheim MaryTuthillLindheim-abstract-vessel CC BY-SA 3.0