July 25 – St James, Apostle (Feast)

Antiphons at Lauds - Psalms of Sunday of the 1st week

1. Jesus walked further and saw James of Zebedee, and John his brother, and he called them.

2. They immediately left their nets behind them, and their father, and followed him.

3. The cup from which I drink you shall also drink, and you shall also be baptized with the baptism with which I shall be baptized.

Acts 2, 42-45

The disciples continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. Fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. All that believed were together, and had all things common; and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.

Brethren, let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful. As for me, it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man’s judgment: yes, I judge not mine own self. For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he who judges me is the Lord. Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.

And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollo for your sakes; that you might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another. For who makes you differ from another? And what is it that you have that you did not not receive? Now if you have received it, why do you glory, as if you had not received it? Now you are full, now you are rich, you have reigned as kings without us: and I would to God you did reign, that we also might reign with you. For I think that God has set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are honourable, but we are despised. Even to this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling place; and labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it: being defamed, we pray: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day.

I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you. For though you have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have you not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. Wherefore I beseech you, be you followers of me.

St James was one of the College of Twelve who, like the twelve sons of Jacob, received his inheritance and had to evangelize part of the Church, figured of old by the promised land. Together with his brother John and with Peter, he was privileged to witness the Transfiguration of Jesus and his agony in the Garden of Olives.

St James, son of Zebedee and surnamed the Greater, or the Elder, was a native of Bethsaida in Galilee. One day his mother, approached the Lord asking of favour for her two sons to be seated, one at his right hand and the other at his left, in his kingdom. Christ then foretold their martyrdom. James was to sit on a throne to judge the twelve tribes of Israel, but he had first have to mix his blood with that of Jesus and undergo, like all the apostles, a life of suffering and persecution.

After the ascension of Jesus to heaven, James preached the Lord’s divinity in Judea and Samaria. He soon after went to Spain. When he returned to Jerusalem, Herod Agrippa, desiring to please the Jews, condemned him to death and he was beheaded towards the year 42, a short time before the feast of Easter. In his martyrdom he was the first among the apostles to have the honour of bearing witness to Christ by his blood in the city of Jerusalem. He thus gave, like his Master, proof of the greatest love which consists in sacrificing one's life fore those one loves.

It would seem that for fear of the Arabs who were masters of Jerusalem, the body of the Saint was later carried to Compostella, in Spain, where he is greatly honoured. July 25 recalls the date of this translation.

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