Daily Gospel Reflection
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July 25, 2025
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.”
My favorite line of the entire Mass is, “Do this in memory of me.” When I was younger, I did not understand the power of this line. I thought it was just an instruction from the priest to physically drink the Blood of Christ every week. But Jesus calls us to more than physical acts alone. Jesus summons us to participate in his life by pouring ourselves out for others—for he came not “to be served, but to serve.”
Upon reflection of Jesus’ call to service in today’s reading, I have witnessed that I often do things in memory of myself instead of Jesus. An attachment to achieving my will above God’s can lead me to push God out of even the most sacred spaces in my life.
This last year, volunteering and service to friends or family sometimes became more about self-gratification than answering God’s call. Jesus challenges self-centeredness in today’s gospel. He tells us that communion with God comes not by seeking to fulfill our wills, but by seeking to fulfill God’s will through a life animated by the memory of Jesus’ outpouring of self for others on the cross.
As we strive to live in the image of Christ, today’s gospel reading offers us great hope. Jesus does not say that we might or could drink of his cup, but that we will indeed drink of it. If we truly desire to be with God and turn our hearts over to the Lord, we can do nothing else but give ourselves entirely to others. This is what we are made for.
Today, let’s find a way to serve others in the memory of Jesus’ radical outpouring of self in the hope that we, too, may be at the hands of the Father.
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.
