Wednesday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time
By
Feast of Saint James, Apostle
“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. For we who live are constantly being given up to death for the sake of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.” (2 Corinthians 4:8-12)
“…Whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Matthew 20:26-28)
Piety
Help me, Lord, to show in the way I live my life all that I have learned and continued to learn from you. I am confident that with your love and light, I can give up all, knowing that you live within me.
Study
http://www.usccb.org/nab/072507.shtml
Will we be ready when God calls?
Consider John and James, the sons of Zebedee and Salome. Salome, as mothers often do, saw her sons in a very favorable light. At the beginning of today’s Gospel, she asks Christ to allow them to sit on either side of him in his kingdom. Jesus challenges John and James, asking “Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink?” They say they can; he affirms that indeed they will, but that “to sit at my right and at my left, this is not mine to give.”
The other apostles become angry at the brothers, but Jesus settles the rancor by saying that this type of authority-wielding is not to be done among them. “Whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
It was not long thereafter that James gave his own life. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia (http://www.catholic.org/encyclopedia/view.php?id=6254), James was beheaded in AD 44 by Herod Agrippa I, grandson of Herod the Great. Even at the end, he was bringing souls to Christ: “the accuser who led the Apostle to judgment, moved by his confession, became himself a Christian, and they were beheaded together.”
Action
Take in a movie or play or watch a TV show that reminds you that “so death is at work in us, but life in you.” One option is Diary of a Country Priest, a classic 1951 French film showing tonight at the
“Amidst physical and spiritual struggles, failure and rejection, the priest accepts all with submission, turning them into a kind of victory,” the CIDC site says. Discuss the lessons learned at your next group reunion.
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