If you
were to ask me “What was your favorite month of Epistle readings at Sunday
Mass?”, I would immediately answer that it was September 2012. During that month, the second readings
at Sunday Mass were from the Epistle of St. James. Here are some samples:
“Religion
that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to care for
orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the
world.”
“Did not
God choose those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the
kingdom that he promised to those who love him?”
“Come now,
you rich, weep and wail over your impending miseries. Your wealth has rotted away, your clothes have become
moth-eaten, your gold and silver have corroded, and that corrosion will be a
testimony against you; it will devour your flesh like a fire. You have stored up treasure for the
last days. Behold the wages you
withheld from the workers who harvested your fields are crying aloud; and the
cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.”
“What good
is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone says he has faith but does not have
works. … If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the
day, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, keep warm, eat well,’ but do
not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it? So also faith of itself, if it does not
have works, is dead.”
The second
readings at Sunday Mass usually don’t get a lot of attention during the homilies. Typically, the first reading (Old
Testament) and the Gospel reading share a common theme and it’s easier to focus
on them in preparing a cohesive homily.
But I think the readings from St. James include very important messages.
During the
Christmas season, we focus on God taking on human form, in the person of
Jesus. We celebrate that the
Almighty came to earth and lived among us.
But, we can also look beyond that to a key theme of Jesus’s life. God could have chosen to come among us
in glory and majesty, born into a wealthy and influential family. But he did not. He was born in a manger, to a carpenter
and his young wife. The Holy Family
fled to Egypt, to avoid the wrath of Herod. During his public ministry, Jesus reached out to the poor
and needy, healing the sick, the blind, the lame, the lepers. He preached about feeding the hungry,
clothing the naked, visiting those in prison and said that, when we have done
this for the least of his brethren, we have done it for him. He told the wealthy young man that it
is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man
to enter heaven. Certainly, as God
and as a charismatic preacher, Jesus could have built an earthly empire and acquired
much wealth, influence and power.
Instead he chose to give his life for us, dying on a cross between two
common criminals. He was a King,
but his Kingdom was “not of this earth”.
At a time
when the income gap between rich and poor keeps widening, when politicians
argue about whether to cut social safety net programs that needy folks rely on
(unemployment, Medicaid, heating assistance, the Women, Infants and Children
program, etc.), let’s remember how our Savior lived his life and the things he
preached about. In thinking about
how we deal with the problems of our society, let’s ask ourselves “What Would
Jesus Do?”.
Have a very merry and blessed Christmas!
