MYSTERIES AND SACRAMENTS

FEAST OF SAINT JAMES, APOSTLE

2 Cor 4:7-15; Ps 126:1-6; Mt 20:20-28

Mysteries of Heaven in Earthenware Jars

The mysteries we receive and celebrate in our liturgical gatherings are revelations of God to us, who are his creatures. Through the scriptures, we have come to understand that God made us for the purpose of containing these mysteries. As we noted yesterday, the revelations of these mysteries are like open doors through which we enter into the presence of God. The Church, as the body of Jesus Christ, is the custodian of these mysteries. That is to say that the Church, by receiving these mysteries from Jesus Christ, received the keys to open the doors leading to the saving presence of God. Our Lord meant this when he entrusted the key to the kingdom of heaven to the apostles. Therefore, the existence of the Church in the world prolongs the salvific presence of God to all peoples and nations. Since her members constitute the Church as the body of Jesus Christ, the presence of God is spread or diffused throughout the world by the children of the Church, who are recipients of these mysteries. By our reverent and faithful attendance to the mysteries of our salvation, we act as receptacles or hosts of the real and divine presence, which we carry about everywhere we go. Hence, God is not only with us and everywhere in his divine essence, but also uniquely through his real presence in the mysteries of salvation that we receive and celebrate.

The unique presence of God with us through the Sacraments of the mysteries of our salvation that we celebrate daily, gives and nourishes our spiritual lives. It also enforces the sentence of death we have received in our mortal bodies due to sin. Hence, one who takes a cursory look at us, the faithful, may not easily see the life of God in which we participate. It is only with spiritual eyes that one can penetrate the façade of mortal or physical life to see the blossoming of God’s life in the faithful. This is the paradox in the lives of the faithful that Saint Paul attempts to describe. “We are only the earthenware jars that hold this treasure, to make it clear that such an overwhelming power comes from God and not from us. We are in difficulties on all sides, but never cornered; we see no answer to our problems, but never despair; we have been persecuted, but never deserted; knocked down, but never killed; always, wherever we may be, we carry with us in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus, too, may always be seen in our body.” In each of us, the justice and mercy of God are at work, condemning our sins in the body and justifying us in the spirit through our faith in Jesus Christ, who is present and active in the mysteries. We must continue to live in faith, so that the dying of the natural body will be swallowed by our spiritual life in Jesus Christ.

What we have so described is the battle each faithful must fight to receive the crown of salvation. Our flesh would not want to die, unless compelled by the grace of God we amply receive in our celebration of the mysteries of Christ. The Lord understood the difficulty awaiting each of us, so he made it clear to James and John when they came imploring for physical favour with their mother. “The mother of the sons of Zebedee came to Jesus with her sons to make a request of him, and bowed low; and he said to her, ‘What is it you want?’ She said to him, ‘Promise that these two sons of mine may sit one at your right hand and the other at your left in your kingdom.’ ‘You do not know what you are asking,’ Jesus answered. ‘Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink?’ They replied, ‘We can.’ They were indeed willing to drink the cup with Jesus, despite their ignorance of its content. But they spoke out of the faith they had in Jesus Christ. We celebrate Saint James today, whose faith and love for Jesus grew to the point of shedding his blood for Jesus Christ. He was able to drink the cup of the Lord, not because of his own strength, but because Christ lived in him and strengthened him through his faith in the mysteries of our salvation, which he received and celebrated. “Those who are sowing in tears will sing when they reap.” It is our sowing season now; let us go out with tears carrying the seed of the heavenly mysteries; we will surely come back singing during the harvest.

Let us pay: Almighty ever-living God, who consecrated the first fruits of your Apostles by the blood of Saint James, grant, we pray, that your Church may be strengthened by his confession of faith and constantly sustained by his protection. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.