There’s a scene in the play/movie Jesus Christ, Superstar, where the disciples including our honoree for today, James, are hanging around while they sing: “Always hoped that I’d be an apostle./ Knew that I would make it if I tried./ Then when we retire, we can write the Gospels,/ So they’ll still talk about us when we’ve died.” The song rings true since wanting to succeed, wanting to do well, is part of the human condition, you can imagine the apostles thinking something like that. Certainly that desire to succeed seems to be what inspired Mrs. Thunder in the passage from St. Matthew’s Gospel. (I say Mrs. Thunder because if you remember Jesus nicknamed James and John “the sons of thunder.” Well, if they were the sons of thunder, she as their mother must have been “thunder.” If this scene of her making demands on Jesus is any indication, she certainly had a thunderous personality.) You can imagine her calling her elder son, whom we recognize as our hero of the day, St. James, the night before her encounter with Jesus. “Jimmy, I’m going to talk with him about you.” “Don’t ‘ah mom’ me. Yes, I am going to do it. You and your brother never put yourselves forward. If you don’t push you won’t get anywhere. I’m going to say something to him.” “Ah huh. Well, he might know what he’s doing but he will surely know what he should be doing once I’ve had my say. You are fine boys and if you won’t step up, then I will.” “Sure, I understand that the other guys will be there. Don’t you worry about them getting upset with you. I just want what’s best for my babies.”
Mrs. Thunder has some very definite ideas about what was best, what constituted success. It involved getting a nice job, securing the corner office, having authority, being the boss. Jesus has a different idea of what makes for a successful and happy life. It is not about what you get but what you give. “Whoever wishes to be great,” he says, “whoever wishes to be first” shall be the one who serves the rest. If TV advertisements are any indication, our society agrees with Mrs. Thunder. Greatness is not measured in service but in stuff – the right clothes, the right house, the right car, that’s what Madison Avenue pushes as being great. There is one truck ad that couldn’t be more blatant. “What do you want out of life,” the voice over asks. “To be a good person, a good husband and father? No, you want to be a master of the universe,” as the truck goes roaring over the hill into the sunset. So we will have some work to do if we are to resist the lure of popular culture and learn to see things as Jesus sees them. We have to find the greatness in service, not in success. We have to become first not by beating the other guy but by leading the other guy into the presence of God. I remember a public service announcement a few years ago. A camera hovered high over a jungle. It looked hot and buggy. As the camera zoomed in you saw a clearing and in the middle of the clearing was a rickety hut. The hut turned out to be a medical clinic and there was a nun caring for the dozens of sick people who were there. Her habit was sweat stained and she kept batting away flies bothering her patients. A voice said, “I wouldn’t do that for a million bucks.” The nun looks straight into the camera and said, “Neither would I.” You see, Church, when you think like Jesus what is really valuable, what is worth spending your life on shifts dramatically. It’s not about getting ahead the way James and John thought in this early stage of formation as apostles. Rather, it’s about giving to others out of the abundant love that God has showered on us. As the old Mahalia Jackson song put it, “If I can help somebody as I travel along, my living shall not be in vain.”
Saint James obviously got that message. His later life as an apostle was about caring for others, not looking out for himself. As we heard in the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, he even gave his life in service to the gospel. You hear a lot in the world of politics, in the world of sport, in the world of business about winning. Winning in the gospel happens when we are great in service, first in helping. Let’s think what that looks like. Take this parish, for example. If we judged it according to the standards of the world we would calculate how many parishioners there are, how much money is raised, how many programs are conducted. But if we use the calculus of Jesus, we would instead look to see if we create an open and hospitable environment where all are welcome, if we are reaching out to those who feel alienated and alone, if we are extending a hand of care to the victims of injustice, violence, discrimination. That’s winning, that’s what will make us a great parish, not numbers. Or in the realm of politics, during the last election campaign there was a slogan to “make America great again.” In the calculus of Jesus, a society is great when the sick and the elderly are given the care and support they need, when the children are given the proper education and formation to launch them into life, when an environment of peace and justice exists throughout an ecological sustainable world. That’s a winning country. Serving is what makes for greatness.
Of course, each of us are called to look at our lives in light of the calculus of Jesus. If we want to be great, if we want to be first, we must live in service. Our families do not exist to meet my individual needs but as places where the members genuinely care for one another. At work or school we become great not by looking out for number one but by living in a spirit of solidarity. We become great neighbors when we create a spirit of cooperation and support for those around us. There is a challenge in this. Jesus dares our patron, St. James, “Can you drink the chalice I am going to drink?” Oh sure, he answers thinking ‘how hard can it be.’ He found out. It cost him his life. Being great, coming in first in Jesus’ way only requires one thing — all that we are. But when we give all that we are in loving care for others we are on the highway to heaven.
