Watch this
homily! (begins at 37:10)
My
friends, as followers of Jesus Christ we are shaped and formed in a way
of greatness that is different from how the world sees the way of
greatness. Along with the other disciples in today’s Gospel, our patron,
St. James, had been formed and formed again in this way of greatness.
As we gather today to celebrate the Feast Day of this most
amazing parish, we give thanks for how we have been shaped and formed
over the years in the way Jesus defines greatness. And, we ask the Lord
to continue to form us and shape us in his way.
For his way is
the way of service. And here at St. James Cathedral, service is at the
heart of parish life. The gift and blessing of Partners in the Gospel is
that we come together with our two sister parishes who put service at
the heart of who they are and what they do as well.
“Whoever
wishes to be great among you, shall be your servant; whoever wishes to
be first among you shall be your slave,” Jesus says in today’s Gospel.
That is not the definition of greatness in the world in which we live.
But it is Jesus’ call to his followers, to us. And he doesn’t call us to
anything that he, himself, was not willing to do.
“Just so,” he
says, “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to
give his life as a ransom for many.” And he did that. He gave himself
away out of love. He put others before himself. He put God, the Father,
before himself. He puts us before himself.
That’s why he can
deal patiently with the question from the mother of James and John. He
knows that to be formed in this way of service, of putting others first,
takes time to mature. So, he is patient but clear in the middle of the
seemingly clueless question and the dispute it prompts among the
disciples.
Do they really know the cost of drinking the chalice
of suffering that Jesus will drink? Are they really willing to drink of
that cup? Not yet, although they eagerly say they are. But, they will
soon be humbled by the fear that will drive them to put themselves and
their own self-preservation first.
It takes time for the kind
of spiritual maturity that discipleship calls for to develop. Jesus
knows this. Jesus is patient with James and John and his followers. He
is patient with us.
And in St. James we have a great model and
intercessor, who supports us on the way. For even though we know that he
and the rest of the disciples did not stand by Jesus at the moment of
his greatest need, they did eventually come around. And, in their coming
around, the Church is born.
St. Luke tells us in the Acts of
the Apostles that James is martyred and, like many modern political
leaders, Herod, who sees that such violence against a perceived threat
is popular, proceeds to arrest Peter, who will also, along with Paul and
the closest followers of Jesus, be put to death.
So, unlike the
scene in today’s Gospel, where discipleship is not yet matured, Jesus’
closest followers do mature; they do come around; they are shaped into
Jesus’ vision and model of what greatness looks like.
This
coming around, this conversion was not totally their own doing. This
coming around to understand that greatness is about service and giving
yourself away comes through the power of God’s Spirit, the Spirit of the
Risen Christ. It was through his empowering Spirit that they grew to
mature discipleship.
That Spirit, the Holy Spirit, is here with
us today as we gather in this cathedral to celebrate our Feast Day and
our patron. The same Spirit of God who raised Christ from the dead, who
turned the disciples around and shaped and formed them in Jesus’ way of
greatness, has been with us as a parish for more than 120 years.
From the founding of our parish in 1904, to the laying of the
cornerstone of this most magnificent cathedral in 1905, to its
dedication in 1907, to the disastrous collapse of the dome just nine
years later, to its renovation and reopening in 1917, through a further
renovation in 1950, and the renovation in 1994 that created the
magnificent worship space we are in today - through all of that physical
making and remaking, the Holy Spirit has guided us.
But, we
know, and you know this better than I, all of the physical making and
remaking of this magnificent building would be as if it were an empty
shell, if not for the service that is done outside - on the street -
in the name of the Lord.
As Fr. Ryan said in his homily at the
rededication of the Cathedral on December 22, 1994, “…we need to
be reminded that a church building, be it a great cathedral or a humble
chapel, fulfills its highest calling not by being the church, but by
becoming a house for the church, a house for the people of God. And we
are that people.”
The Holy Spirit has guided us, this people,
over these 121 years through World Wars, world wide epidemics, the
internment of our own citizens, the Great Depression, the reforms of the
Second Vatican Council, the exciting and challenging times of the 1960’s
to the 1990’s, and through a visionary pastorate of 37 years that has
brought us to this moment of celebration today.
And as we
gather here once again under the guiding inspiration of St. James to be
nourished by word and sacrament, we are reminded of the Lord’s call to
us, his people, to be sent from here, as we have for more than a
century, to live in such a way that redefines what greatness looks like.
May our communion with the Lord and with each other today,
continue to shape us, these earthen vessels that God uses to spread his
Good News, so that we may more and more become the great servants we are
called to be.
Father Gary F. Lazzeroni, Pastor
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