Daily Gospel Reflection
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July 25, 2024
The mother of the sons of Zebedee approached Jesus with her sons
and did him homage, wishing to ask him for something.
He said to her,
“What do you wish?”
She answered him,
“Command that these two sons of mine sit,
one at your right and the other at your left, in your Kingdom.”
Jesus said in reply,
“You do not know what you are asking.
Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink?”
They said to him, “We can.”
He replied,
“My chalice you will indeed drink,
but to sit at my right and at my left, this is not mine to give
but is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.”
When the ten heard this,
they became indignant at the two brothers.
But Jesus summoned them and said,
“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them,
and the great ones make their authority over them felt.
But it shall not be so among you.
Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant;
whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave.
Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served
but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Reflection
The mother of the sons of Zebedee reminds me so much of my own mother, who entered paradise last December after nearly 95 years on earth. Ruth Eileen, my mother, was laser-focused on heaven, not merely for herself and her husband, who departed several years earlier, but importantly for her children. Through the last 3 or 4 years of her life, as my mother lived with me and my family, hardly a day went by that she did not pray the rosary for her children. Her faith was, and still is, inspirational. Even near the end of her earthly life, when she had the strength, Ruth Eileen would whisper God have mercy on my babies. I doubt I can ever achieve my mother’s level of faith and trust in our Lord.
Indeed, drinking the chalice is not always easy, particularly in a society that often seems to ignore, if not demean, faithful individuals. This is one of the myriad of reasons that I love my home at Notre Dame. Faith is evident at every corner of campus (in the dorms, chapels, and classrooms). At Notre Dame, the faithful are embraced, not ostracized. Members of the Notre Dame family typically strive to serve rather than to be served, making drinking from the chalice so much easier.
Drinking from the chalice can be difficult, but Jesus did that throughout his ministry. And that is the message of the gospel. In my estimation, the weakest among us, those who have no voice, are the unborn. Over fifty years ago, my mother worked to start one of the earliest pro-life counseling organizations in Wisconsin. As I saw her long life come to an end, I appreciated her devotion to life from conception to natural death. I am proud to note that the pro-life community at Notre Dame is strong in helping students and faculty drink from the chalice and show their respect for God’s most vulnerable.
Prayer
Father, by the example of your son, you taught us that true greatness lies not in power, but rather in service. Grant that we may be free of our desire to be powerful, to control others, and to be raised up in status; grant, instead, that we may be filled with a desire to grow in humility and to serve those in need and those who have been entrusted to our care. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. James the Greater is the patron saint of Spain and of pilgrims—even today, hundreds of thousands of people journey by foot to visit his tomb in Compostela, Spain.
James was the son of Zebedee and Salome, brother to St. John, and cousin to Jesus. He is known as “St. James the Greater” or “St. James Major” only because he was older than another disciple who was also named James (referred to as “Lesser” or “Minor”), and was called by Jesus before him.
James the Greater was one of the first disciples to follow Jesus. Matthew’s Gospel describes him on a boat near the seashore mending his fishing nets when Jesus called him and his brother, John; “immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him” (4:21-22).
Even among the Twelve, James held a special place close to Jesus. He was one of the three disciples with Jesus during the Transfiguration, and he was one of the few present when Jesus raised Jairus’ daughter (Mt 9), even though everyone thought the girl was dead.
James was the first of the disciples to be martyred—he was beheaded by King Herod in the year 44. Jesus called James “son of thunder” because of his fiery temper, and his proclivity to angry outbursts could have been what got him killed so early.
Tradition holds that James traveled to Spain after Pentecost to preach the risen Christ. He was struggling with this mission until Mary appeared to him upon a pillar (which is still preserved in Zaragoza, Spain) and ordered a church built on the site. After that apparition, James returned to Judea and was killed by Herod. The disciples took his body by boat from the Holy Land back to Spain, and carried it inland to Compostela, where it now rests.
During the Muslim conquest of Spain, his relics were lost, but were recovered in the ninth century and venerated at Compostela. The popularity of St. James grew throughout Spain and beyond, and a network of roads and trails leading to Compostela emerged as pilgrims streamed there. Santiago de Compostela became a pilgrimage site that rivaled Rome and the Holy Land, and hundreds of thousands of faithful still make the pilgrimage today.
The symbols of pilgrims and Compostela became symbols for St. James as well—the cockle shell and pilgrim’s staff. He is depicted as a pilgrim in this painting by Rembrandt.
St. James is also the patron of those who suffer from arthritis, and his relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica.
St. James the Greater, the first disciple to give his life for the faith, and the patron of pilgrims, pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. James the Greater is available for use under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Last accessed March 20, 2025 on Wikimedia Commons.
