Hl. James Mt 20, 20-28

If we stop for a moment at the picture that hangs on our main altar, it is a picture that does not express any real scene from the life of St. James because St. James was a bishop in Jerusalem, that is, in the place where the Lord Jesus died and rose from the dead. He didn’t go far. He cared for those who were in that city. And here is the depiction as we see it is just so symbolic. He is wearing a cloak, a water container, and he is carrying seashells and a staff. All this was a pilgrim’s equipment in the Middle Ages. And actually, for about a thousand years, people have been going to the tomb of St. James in Composted, Spain. On the way, which takes quite a long time from us, they have the opportunity to think, to remember the events from the life of St. James and to think about what it meant for James, to think about what it means for the people who are on the way.

I actually know that Shell petrol company also chose this seashell as its emblem, it is from the Jacobean seashell, and it reminds us that for every journey, you need to be well-equipped so that you don’t faint on the way, that you don’t run out of strength, that you don’t run out of energy.

As we see in the picture, the muscle was used for collecting water in the Middle Ages. But for the first time, we encounter the depiction of a shell in the catacombs, i.e., in the burial places of the first Christians. On the one hand, it was a marker for relatives to recognize where their relative was buried because it was dark in those catacombs, but the seashell symbolized the grave. When it is closed, then to the closed tomb, when it is open, then to the tomb that was opened on Easter Sunday, when Jesus rose from the dead. So a reminder that death will not have the last place, the last word, but that on the contrary, it will be life and reunion.

Let’s go back to that pilgrimage, to those thoughts, how we should look at the life of Saint James and compare it with our own life. We know he came from Galilee; he was a fisherman. His brother was John, the apostle John, who stood under the cross. Their father’s name was Zebedee, and their mother’s was Salome; here is the woman who asks for those honors. And they did not follow Jesus alone. Jesus had to challenge them. Some disciples came alone. They came, for example, because John the Baptist sent them. But James and John were washing their nets when they returned from fishing, and Jesus called them. So they were not the ones to flock to Jesus from the beginning, but when they were called, they went. And apparently, it took them longer before they somehow clung to Jesus, before they added to him internally. The truth is that together with the apostle Peter, he forms a trinity that is present at all important events, at all important moments. So Jesus takes the three with him even to places others must stay outside. It is at the moment when he goes to resurrect Jairus’ daughter, it is at the moment when they are on Mount Tabor, but it is also at the moment actually in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus struggles to accept the task of savior by way of the cross.

So Jakub was there for all of this. James was the person who was then put in charge of the first church community in a place where it was not easy; where on the one hand, there were several thousand disciples; on the other hand, there were Pharisees, Sadducees, enemies of Jesus. And these enemies kept trying to denigrate the disciples of Jesus in some way; they tried to provoke various conflicts and frictions, and they were responsible for the fact that the deacon Stephen was killed. Deacon Stephen is the first martyr, and the death of Saint James right after him is documented.

Within happened sometime around the year 42, and he was executed by the grandson of Herod the Great, Heroes Agrippa, a man who grew up in Rome and was labeled a playboy in Rome. And he tried to please the Jews, precisely those Pharisees and Sadducees. And from how it is described, it appears that they accused James of conspiring against the Romans because he was killed in the Roman manner. Of course, it was made up, none of it was true at all, but he could see that she liked it.

Herodes Agrippa was a man who did what he saw he liked. It’s called acting for effect. Sometimes it is called opportunism or pragmatism in a foreign word, simply what is convenient, from which I will benefit in some way. That Herod Agrippa was somehow not religious. On the one hand, he behaved like a Roman, like a pagan, but he tried to please the Sadducees and Pharisees.

And we heard in the Gospel how the mother of Zebedee’s sons Jacob and John also takes advantage of the situation. Jesus is somewhere near Jericho, and he is going to Jerusalem, and she thinks to herself, “Now would be a good time to get something for my sons. Jesus often takes them with him, so why not use it so that everyone can see them and that everyone admires them.” It’s also acting for effect, an attempt to show off in some way at the expense of others. And Jesus doesn’t accept this; Jesus says: “I’m not about showing off, I’m not about showing off, it’s about something else. It’s about who deserves those places, who gets them with their attitude. Every person can get a place at Jesus’ left and at Jesus’ right. Jesus proved this by having two criminals crucified on his left and right on Good Friday. Humans can have one on the left and the other on the right. But right here in this religious logic, each of us can be there if we stand for it, if we strive for it, if we somehow deserve it.

Jesus asks them and says: “Can you follow me even in the difficult, to drink the cup that I will drink?” These are difficulties; these are efforts. And they a little hastily, without thinking about what they are saying, say: “We can,” because they believe and say to themselves: “This will move us higher, so we promise him something, and he will honor us all the more.” And Jesus says: “Okay.” He knows very well that they do not know what they are talking about and are promising something that is probably not in their power at the moment. But they both grew up for it. James was the first to die a violent death, while John was the last of Jesus’ apostles and died in exile on the island of Patumos. So he did not die a violent death, but throughout his long life, he bore witness to the gospel, to the fact that he belonged to Jesus Christ.

And I would sum it all up in some way, end it. Saint James grew like this when he was with the Lord Jesus. He grew primarily; we would say, spiritually. He was a man who, as I said at the beginning, was not used to changing principles, his cloak was not where the wind was. When he somehow stuck to Jesus, I remind you again, at the beginning, he was invited, he did not rush anywhere, but when he joined Jesus’ disciples, he took it as his own. Then it was he who was relied upon, and then he persisted in it, in what he recognized as right and good, so he persisted in it even at the moment when it actually cost him his life.

Brothers and sisters, we live in a time when people often change their minds. May the constancy of the apostle James be a model and strength in our lives.