6 September 2015
23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Compared to other NT letters, the Letter of James seems practical and simple.
But it is one thing to understand the message of James, and another to put the gospel message into practice. In today’s reading, for example, the author encourages us to “show no partiality as you adhere to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.” He points out the vice (partiality) and immediately sets the standard for Christian behavior: Jesus’ own fidelity to the will of the Father. This is the guiding principle in Christian living: Do as Jesus did.
To illustrate his point, James describes the blatant favoring of the wealthy at the expense of the poor. What makes this discrimination even more detestable is that it happens in the religious assembly. Of course, the favoritism portrayed in this letter is not the way a Christian community should behave.
But James goes further to offer yet another, less obvious truth: “God has chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom.” Perhaps the poor are the heirs of the kingdom because they are not as distracted as others by earthly concerns. Do “gold rings and fine clothes” keep us from fully embracing what God calls Christ's disciples to do?
Ask yourself: What is God requiring of me, today?
In this letter James challenged the accepted values of the world in which he lived. He also called upon every succeeding generation to evaluate its treatment of people and its practices of discrimination: Always a timely reflection, given the economic, racial, and class divisions that continue to tear our world apart today.
The author, Ms. Barbara Gawle, leads Bible studies at her parish, Incarnation Church of Wethersfield, CT. She is a CBS graduate and the 2012 recipient of the Biblical School's highest award, the Lawrence Boadt Memorial Medal.
