Praised be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.
St. James is one of the three apostles closest to Jesus, the other two are his brothers St.
John and St. Peter.
Christ wanted only these three as witnesses to the resurrection of Jairus' daughter.
He chose only these three to be witnesses at the Transfiguration, which they were to keep secret until after the Son of Man rose from the dead.
Only these three were witnesses to Christ's agony in the Garden of Gethsemane.
The two sons of Zebedee were fishermen until the day Christ called them to become fishers of men.
Then they left everything and followed him.
Christ gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder, to James and John because of their sometimes indiscreet zeal.
Moved by that zeal, when a Samaritan village refused to receive Christ, they asked him, Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?
Jesus kept them from doing harm, and when their zeal was purified, he quickly led them to great holiness and eternal glory.
In fact, St. James was the first martyr among the apostles, the first fruit that God judged ripe to be picked.
But in today's Gospel, we find all the apostles still imperfect, the two who tried to get ahead of the other ten, and the ten who were jealous of the two.
The choice of Gospel might disappoint some devotees of St. James, but the Church really has to choose one that makes him look bad.
Yes, to teach us that he is a great saint by God's grace, not by nature.
No one is good except God alone, as our Lord said.
Because he was not born a saint, but became one by following Jesus, there is hope that the same will happen also for us if we will follow Christ wholeheartedly.
Before there were saints, James and John were ambitious, as we see in the Gospel.
They saw that Christ favored them in a special way.
They knew that they were on their way to Jerusalem, and thought that Christ would soon reign there.
It seemed an opportune time for them to ask for the places that they hoped to obtain in that kingdom, and in order to succeed more easily, they got their mother to ask for them.
But Jesus, who knows our secret hearts, answered the brothers and not the mother.
You, that's the plural of you, you do not know what you are asking.
Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink?
He refers to the chalice of martyrdom, the cup that he would drink in Gethsemane.
Places of honor in the kingdom of heaven are for those who become like their crucified king.
Saint John Chrysostom explains, “This is not the season for rewards, neither shall that glory of mine appear now, but the present time is one of slaughter, of wars and dangers. First, we must sow in tears, and only later can we reap with joy.”
Without hesitation, the brothers respond, “We can.”
They don't know what they're saying, but they think that if the chalice is good for their master, it will be good for them too, and they're right.
Christ confirms their answer, and in due time they will indeed drink his chalice.
Around A.D. 24, or rather 42, Herod Agrippa I laid violent hands on some who belonged to the Church.
He killed James, the brother of John, with the sword.
Freed from envy and intemperate zeal, he had done great things for the Lord in just a few years.
It's said that he even reached Spain at the far end of the Mediterranean.
The first reading expresses St. Paul's zeal, but St. James could have also spoken in the same way.
St. Clement of Alexandria reports a detail of his martyrdom.
He says, according to his traditions of his predecessors, that is of St. Clement's predecessors, so maybe we're going back to the first century, that he who brought him into court was so moved on seeing him testify that he confessed that he also was himself a Christian.
So they were both led away together, he says, and on the way he begged that he be forgiven by James.
And James, having looked at him for a little while, said, Peace be to you, and kissed him.
And thus, both were beheaded at the same time.
We are celebrating today, says St. Gregory the Great, the heavenly birthday of a martyr.
We must not consider ourselves altogether strangers to his virtue of patience, the virtue that distinguishes the martyrs.
If, with the Lord's help, we are striving to observe the virtue of patience, though we are living in a time of peace for the Church, or relative peace, not a lot of martyrdoms in the United States, at least not yet, yet we are holding the palm of martyrdom.
And if we cannot follow him in the violent death of martyrdom, we can imitate the martyr's patience in everyday life.
For, as St. Gregory explains, to bear insults, to love one who hates us, is martyrdom in the secret of our thoughts.
Truth, who asked the sons of Zebedee, “Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?” testifies that there are two kinds of martyrdom, one in our secret actions, the other in public.
For he said that both would drink his cup, and what is this cup, except that of which he said elsewhere, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.
But the sons of Zebedee, James and John, did not both die martyrs.
Yet each heard that he would drink of the cup.
John did not end his life by martyrdom, and yet he was a martyr because he sustained in his heart the suffering he did not undergo in his body.
And we, too, following his example, can be martyrs without a sword if we truly guard patience in our hearts.
Praised be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.

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Ave Maria.