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Letters Twenty-Second
Sunday in Ordinary Time |
The Catholic Telegraph
September 1, 2000This Sunday’s reading begins a series of five readings from the Letter of James. We don’t know who the author of this book is, whether it was one of the two apostles named James, or "James, the brother of Jesus," or someone who saw himself as a disciple of one of these and wrote in his name. This short letter is addressed to "the twelve tribes in the dispersion," but we don’t know whether that means that its intended readers were Jewish Christians only or all Christians scattered throughout the known world. The letter does not deal with one general theological theme, like Ephesians nor about specific and detailed community problems like the letters to the Corinthians. It is rather a kind of general exhortation to virtuous living that deals with themes like wealth and generosity and appropriate speech and temptation.
Our series of readings begins with some verses from chapter one which is a list of more or less unconnected sayings that offer a foundation for Christian morality.
The author reminds us that we have been enlightened by the creator of light itself, the source of all goodness who is totally unchangeable and completely reliable. This enlightenment from God consists in a new birth, in truth that transforms us into the "firstfruits of his creatures," i.e., belonging to God in a special way. Next he points out that what God has given us (i.e., faith) brings us salvation if we receive it with humble thanksgiving and carry out its practical implications. Faith without practice is self-delusion. Finally the reading tells us what constitutes the practice God wants from us. It’s not just a matter of going to church and saying prayers. It also demands looking out "for orphans and widows in their affliction," (i.e., caring for those in need) as well as a willingness to be carefully detached from the world around us.
There is some important teaching in these three disconnected pieces from the first chapter of James. First of all, they teach us about faith. Faith is a gift, a kind of new birth, a "word of truth" that comes to us from the initiative of the Creator. Faith gives stability and equilibrium to our lives because it is the gift of one Who Himself is stable and unchangeable. James does not go into much theological detail about the nature of faith, and we need to read other authors of the New Testament to learn that faith is a participation in the life of the risen Christ. But James does tell us that faith makes us pleasing to God ("firstfruits") and that it involves more than what we tend to think of as "being religious." Faith involves more than the acceptance of God’s gift to us. It involves carrying out in practice the implications of the gift.
There are two extremes that we have to avoid when we think about faith and good works. The first is to look on faith as something we earn or deserve. "If we are good enough and try hard enough, then God will be pleased with us and our efforts will make us pleasing in His sight. He will owe us salvation." The other extreme is to emphasize the gratuity of faith and grace, the fact that it comes to us by the free gift of God, to the point that we overlook its demands. "Once we have been gifted by God, no more effort is required. We can just sit back and wait for Him to welcome us into the kingdom at the end of our lives." The truth is that, while our behavior as Christian believers is important, it’s secondary to God’s initiative. And while God’s initiative is important, it requires our acceptance and our response, expressed in a way of life that can sometimes demand self-sacrifice and suffering.
The examples of "religion that is pure and undefiled" at the end of our reading are important teaching for us, too. James gives us two examples of what God expects from us.
The first example is caring for "widows and orphans." In the world of the New Testament (and the Old Testament, as well) widows and orphans were unimportant people par excellence. Being without family, they were vulnerable, without resources, without protection, without influence, without power. They were people who could easily be disregarded, but precisely for that reason they were people for whom God calls for special care from those who claimed to serve Him. They may not have been important to other people, but they were important to God. We take better care of widows and orphans in our society, but there are still other "unimportant" people whose need gives them a claim to our attention.
The second example of pure and undefiled religion that our reading gives us is keeping oneself "unstained by the world." It’s easy to see how a Christian would want to keep his or her distance from the world of the first century. Paganism reigned supreme. Cruelty and injustice were everywhere. Greed was the order of the day. Obviously one couldn’t just opt out of the world, but one could take pains not to be besmirched by it. One is inclined to wonder how different the situation is for the Christian believer of today.
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Conversation Questions
Who are the "unimportant" people that demand our attention?
What steps do I take to stay "unstained by the world"?
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