May Jesus Christ be praised and may his holy Mother pray for us.
In the organization of the readings for the celebration of Mass, the Gospels are organized in a three year cycle. The readings from the Old Testament are chosen because of their connection to the Gospel. In the second reading, however, we read almost continuously each Sunday through one of the letters of the New Testament. In the second reading we encounter the many letters of the apostle Paul, the three letters of John, the letter to the Hebrews, the letter of Jude, and today, we begin to hear from the letter of James. For the next month, each Sunday we will hear the counsel of James, the servant and slave of the Lord Jesus Christ, given to the early Church. For the next month, each Sunday we will hear the counsel of James, our elder brother in the faith, now radiant in the glory of the kingdom of heaven, given to you and to me.
In the letter of James, we hear the proclamation that “all good giving and every perfect gift is from above.” We hear that the source of all gifts is the Father of lights and that he has “willed to give us birth by the word of truth so that we may be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.” In this opening passage of the letter of James we are told of the identity of our God who has desired to share his very life with us. We have been created as a gift of the love of the Father, and he has called us and equipped us to be received as the first fruits of his creation. Revealed to us in the language of worship, the Father has created us to be a gift for himself. That, my brothers and sisters, is who we are, and who we are called to be. God has made us to be, in Christ Jesus, the acceptable sacrifice.
In response to the love of the Father, and in response to the invitation to be the first fruits of creation, James counsels us to receive in humility the word that has been planted in us. Recognizing our own need and receiving with thanksgiving the saving word of Christ, James reminds us that our encounter with the word of God invites a response. The Word of God is not simply something that we hear. The Word of God calls us to transformation and calls us to action.
When we gather to worship the Father in spirit and in truth, the Lord gathers us to transform us and gathers us to send us out. James reminds us that “religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” What the letter of James professes and what the Church has proclaimed in every generation is that our worship has consequences. There are, dear brothers and sisters, consequences to our worship. There are consequences to our Amen.
In every celebration of Mass we respond Amen many times. We do this so often that it can almost become a reflex. How often do we say Amen without even realizing it? This response does not simply mean that the prayer is concluded or the Sacrament has been received. The Amen is the way that you make the prayer of the Church your own. With your Amen you demonstrate that you believe, and not only with your mind but with our whole heart and soul. Your Amen is to be an expression of your total conviction to the truths of our faith. With your Amen you express your participation in the Sacrifice of the Mass and your reception of the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ in Holy Communion. That however, is not the only consequence to our worship. It is not the only consequence of our Amen: because the Amen that we say in here must be lived out there. So, dear brothers and sisters, if we are going to raise our voices in prayer begging the Lord to build up our lives and the lives of our families with his grace, then we cannot use that same voice to tear down the reputation of another. We cannot allow the hand that touches Holy Water to make the sign of the cross to be raised in violence. And we cannot use people as if they were things, and show affection for things as if they were people. The letter of James reminds us that Christ has called us to a life of faith. The witness of our lives is our ultimate Amen.
