Happy Feast of St James

St James
I was studying we were three people who were called Sunny. When some one comes to see me they had to ask” We have three sunny here. Which one do you want to see?" In the first Christian community there were five or six disciples with the same name: James, the son of Zebedee, (Mt. 10:2); James, the son of Alphaeus, (Mt. 10:3); James, who was a cousin of Jesus, (Mt. 27:56); James, whose brother, Jude, wrote the shortest letter in the New Testament; James, who was father of the apostle Thaddeus, (Lk 6:16); and James, the disciple who wrote one of the Epistles. The first two were apostles: one whom St. Mark calls "the younger," (Mk. 15:40), the son of Alphaeus; and the older apostle, whom we honor in today's feast as James the Greater, son of Zebedee.
St James was a very privileged apostle like St Peter. He was one of the special apostle That Jesus picked up to be with Him all the time . St James was one of three witnesses of the Transfiguration of Christ in Mt. Tabor, also a witness to Jesus' agony in the garden. He witnessed to all the major miracles of Jesus. But we are not happy with the blessings we get every day. When we get one thing then we thrust for the other. We all need the material things and we forget the graces we receive every day in our life. He got all the privilege to be with Jesus but then they want to get the left and right position of the kingdom of Jesus. We all love to have the power and position and Money and we forget the fact what our St Paul says in Timothy “we cannot take anything with us when we leave, but if we have food and covering we may rest content. Those who want to be rich fall into temptations and snares and many foolish harmful desires which plunge people into ruin and perdition. The love of money is the root of all evil." (I Timothy 6: 5-10)
But after the resurrection of Jesus and receiving the Holy Spirit St James realized what he said to Jesus that he is ready to drink the Chalice. May be that' s why he was the first to give his life for the Christian faith when Herod Agripa sent for him to be decapitated around the year 42.
James's symbol, the scallop shell, became the badge of those who went on pilgrimage, and still serves so: . Sir Walter Raleigh wrote the pilgrim's prayer, which he "supposed to be written by one at the point of death, the pilgrimage we all have tickets for, to the land from which no traveller returns. "Give me my scallop shell of quiet, My staff of faith to walk upon, my scrip of joy, immortal diet, my bottle of salvation; my gown of glory, hope's true gage, and thus I'll take my pilgrimage."
James was greater not only in age and size, but also by being the first apostle to shed his blood for Christ.
A great commentator on the New Testament, William Barclay, writes that one Roman coin had a picture of an ox facing both an altar and a plough. The inscription said, "Ready for either." The ox was ready to be slain on the altar of sacrifice or to labor for many years on the farm. So it happened that James was quickly martyred, while his brother, John, labored for Christ until he was nearly a hundred years old, dying of old age. As Christians we may be called to follow Jesus by an early, premature death, suffering violence without striking back, or by the labor of a long life, struggling to be faithful without growing cold in our love. May we be ready for either.
Happy Feast Day.