James and John were brothers and fisherman
possibly working with Peter. Their mother was Salome who may have a
sister of the Virgin Mary which makes James and John cousins of Jesus.
James was the first apostle to be killed, but his
younger brother, John, who was most favored by Jesus was not
martyred.
John lived to be an old man on the Island of
Patmos where he wrote the Book of Revelation. John’s feast day is
December 27.
July 25: St. James (the
Greater)
This James is the brother of John the
Evangelist. The two were called by Jesus as they worked with their father in
a fishing boat on the Sea of Galilee. Jesus had already called another pair of
brothers from a similar occupation: Peter and Andrew. “He walked along a little
farther and saw James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They too were
in a boat mending their nets. Then he called them. So they left their father
Zebedee in the boat along with the hired men and followed him” (Mark 1:19-20).
James was one of the favored
three who had the privilege of witnessing the Transfiguration, the raising to
life of the daughter of Jairus and the agony in Gethsemani.
Two incidents in the Gospels
describe the temperament of this man and his brother. St. Matthew tells that
their mother came (Mark says it was the brothers themselves) to ask that they
have the seats of honor (one on the right, one on the left of Jesus) in the
kingdom. “Jesus said in reply, ‘You do not know what you are asking. Can you
drink the cup that I am going to drink?’ They said to him, ‘We can’” (Matthew
20:22). Jesus then told them they would indeed drink the cup and share his
baptism of pain and death, but that sitting at his right hand or left was not
his to give—it “is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father”
(Matthew 20:23b). It remained to be seen how long it would take to realize the
implications of their confident “We can!”
The other disciples became
indignant at the ambition of James and John. Then Jesus taught them all the
lesson of humble service: The purpose of authority is to serve. They are not to
impose their will on others, or lord it over them. This is the position of
Jesus himself. He was the servant of all; the service imposed on him was the
supreme sacrifice of his own life.
On another occasion, James and
John gave evidence that the nickname Jesus gave them—“sons of
thunder”—was an apt one. The Samaritans would not welcome Jesus because
he was on his way to hated Jerusalem. “When the disciples James and John saw
this they asked, ‘Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume
them?’ Jesus turned and rebuked them…” (Luke 9:54-55).
James was apparently the first of
the apostles to be martyred. “About that time King Herod laid hands upon some
members of the church to harm them. He had James, the brother of John, killed
by the sword, and when he saw that this was pleasing to the Jews he proceeded
to arrest Peter also” (Acts 12:1-3a).
This James, sometimes called
James the Greater, is not to be confused with James the Lesser (May 3) or with
the author of the Letter of James and the leader of the Jerusalem community.
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