Homily- Saturday of the 16th Week in Ordinary
Time/Feast of St. James, Apostles (Martyr)- Fr. Udoekpo, M
v 2
Cor 4:7-15
v Ps
126: 1bc-2ab,2cd-3,4-5,6
v Matt
20:20-28
The Son of Man Came not to be Served, but to
Serve
On this feast of St. James, and in light of the scripture
passages today, the themes of suffering, services and sacrifices are worth
contemplating.
Starting with the Matthew’s Gospel just heard (Matt
20:20-28), Jesus the son of man humbly came to serve and not to be served. This is true throughout his mission, passion,
death and resurrection. In his mission, he cured diseases, forgave sinners,
raised the dead and taught the ignorance and the greedy. Some were the parents
and sons of Zebedee as heard in the Gospel. Zebedee came to lobby Christ for
positions for his children, James and John. Thank, God, Christ taught and
educated them of his true, humble, dedicated, selfless mission of service to
the cross” the Son of Man (ben ‘enōsh, hious toũ anthrōpos).
Each of us is called to be of service to God and to one
another in our various callings and locations. This was equally true in Paul
and apostles of the Gentile heard in today’s second reading. Educated in
Jerusalem in Jewish laws, a prosecutor of the Christian faith who later sacrificially
became its promoter, travelling from the eastern Mediterranean, Middle East, and
Rome, almost heading to Spain… etc preaching the Gospel of service, sufferings,
and sacrifices. He was like Christ, rejected, persecuted and beaten a many
times. He endured, he hoped, he persevered, always carrying about in his body
the dying of Christ.
Like the psalmist would put, it Paul, like Christ, knew
that “those who sow in tears, like the ancient dispersed Israel, would rejoice
when they reap, and when the exiles and the sufferings were over,’ (Ps 126).
What a fortune reversed for believers and for those who endure, who persevere!
Similarly, were the ministries of James whose feast we commemorate
today—James in particular we are told, witnessed Christ transfiguration and
agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. He eventually suffered martyrdom in the year
42 Ad, by Agrippa I. As Paul would put it, his death did not in any way
constrain or prevent the spread of the gospel. In spite, of the persecution of
Christ, Paul, James and the other apostles, the Christian faith was never abandoned.
This message of course challenges us today (including our
selfishness, subjectivism, greed, indifference and extreme anthropocentrism),
faced with our own different contextual forms of persecution, sufferings and
tears! This covid-19 could be one of them. Loss of our livelihood and
loved ones could be one of them. Effects of corruption in our nation capitals
could be one of them. Climate change, exploitation of nature and in ordinate
anthropocentric behavior of humans against neighbor God’s creatures, land, air
and water pollution with detrimental repercussions could be some of the
challenges we face today.
None of these should ever lead us to abandon our faith,
nor loose sight of the fact that the Lord is watching over us, known by God to
be social, sacrificial, selfless, responsible and religious beings made for one
another, as constantly conveyed in the African concept of ubuntu (I am
because you are. We are called to imitate, Christ in the service to one another
in our various communities.
Reflection Questions
1.
In what ways have we
rendered selfless services to our neighbors in the past?
2.
In what ways have we
suffered humiliation or being persecuted for the sake of our Christian faith?
3.
In what ways have we mirrored
Christ, Paul, and James, the Apostle, whose feast we celebrate today?
