7/25/2016 – Feast of St James the Greater – Matthew 20:20-28

      James the Greater was the son of Zebedee and Mary of Salome.  James and his brother John left their family’s prosperous fishing enterprise to become disciples of Christ. I’m sure that this was quite a leap of faith for both of them.  Jesus called these two brothers the “Sons of Thunder,” perhaps because of their fiery, assertive personalities.  In the Gospel today, their mother Mary of Salome asks Jesus to promise James and John places of honor in his kingdom: one at his right, the other at his left.  When Jesus told them that they were called to service rather than places of honor, I don’t think James could have foreseen where his destiny as a disciple of Christ would lead him.

      Think about how on our journey of faith, we pray with our friends, how we pray with other believers, how we look to others for advice and inspiration. St James the Greater is our parish’s patron saint and one of the most honored saints in the world today.  We honor James today in a special way as our parish’s patron saint, uniting our prayers with his.  

        I was reading a book by Linda Davidson and David Gitlitz, a husband and wife who were professors at the University of Rhode Island.  They wrote about the Way of St James in the 1970s when the Camino was a distant memory from the Middle Ages. They described how they slept one evening in the monastery established by San Juan de Ortega in the 12^th century. The monastery was boarded up and falling apart.  Today, that monastery is one of the gems along the pilgrimage route, receiving extensive renovations.  Especially under with regime of General Francisco Franco, which lasted until 1975, there were very few pilgrims who made their way to Santiago.  Few people had any interest in this old pilgrimage route in northern Spain. It seemed like an old relic whose time had past.  Many of the churches and monasteries on the route were closed up and abandoned.  Pilgrims’ accommodations did not really exist at that time.  Starting in the mid-1980s several priests and several devoted pilgrims had a dream of reinvigorating the pilgrimage route again. St James left Spain as a missionary in the Early Church with very few converts and with a heavy heart, returning to Jerusalem to become the first apostle who was martyred. Yet, today, he brings Catholics and non-Catholics from all over the world to this spiritual journey on this ancient Catholic pilgrimage route.  Last year, more than 265,000 pilgrims arrived in Santiago.  I wonder how James would react to the pilgrimage that this going on in his name today?

      It is interesting that in the Catholic Church and in the world in general, there is a great interest in the saints today, a renaissance in scholarship and learning about them.  When I first walked the Camino of Santiago in 2003, there were only 2 books in English about the Camino, and both of those were very scholarly dissertations.  Today, there are literally hundreds of books written about pilgrimage and the Camino of Saint James.  This is the third year that we have been having a pilgrimage walk in honor of St James.  We are very grateful to honor St James and to ask for his prayers and intercessions for our parish. 

        Yesterday, in our Gospel from Luke, Jesus spoke about the importance of persistence and perseverance in our prayers.  St James is a great example of persistence and perseverance in our journey of faith.  His example still calls out to us today.