The Feast of St. James 2024

Homily for the Solemnity of St. James, the Apostle, Deir Rafat, 04.05.2024

by Fr. Piotr Zelazko 

Dear Sisters and Brothers, 

A few weeks ago, we celebrated the Resurrection of the Lord. In all the communities, the festive liturgy and meetings underlined our faith in the fact that He is alive. Today, we are in a special moment. Not only is it the Easter of our Orthodox Sisters and Brothers, to whom we wish all the blessings, but we also celebrate the solemnity of St. James, the Patron of our Vicariate.  

St. James the Minor, called the Just or the “Brother of the Lord” was an amazing person. Let us leave at a side for a moment the discussion whether the son of Alpheus and the son of Kleopas are the same person. It is more important to understand his way of dealing with the very urgent problem which the young Church community was facing. The number of believers of non-Jewish origin was growing and the question raised what is to be done with this fact. The intuition of many went in the direction of a radical solution: pagans need first to become like Jews in order to receive the Gospel. This was connected to the necessity of circumcision and undertaking all the rules of the Torah. A beautiful example of synodality of the early Church was the trip of Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem to meet the Apostles and discuss the issue. During a gathering described by today’s first reading, the Head of the Jerusalem Community expressed his position and was able to convince the other responsible ones that Jesus, the Messiah of Israel was sent by God to the entire world, as St. Paul will later write: “There is neither Jew nor Greek (…) for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:28). 

The significant words of St. James: “God made no distinction between us and them” (Acts 15:9) were important for the solution of a theological as well as a practical problem in the ancient Church. And here we are, after almost 2000 years: the entire Church went to Europe where its theology was described in the language of the Greco-Roman philosophy, eventually reaching the “ends of the world”. The divine work of the Holy Spirit was effective and efficient this way. But the mother -Church, the little flock of those who came from among of People of Israel, still exists. 

Today’s feast should underline this fact. We are the Vicariate of St. James not only because we speak Hebrew and chose this Apostle as our Patron. We are the descendants of the first disciples and though small we need to build bridges between the Jewish world and the Church of Jesus Christ. It is our vocation to show to the People of Israel that that our faith in the Messiah does not take away the heritage of which we are part of. It is our duty to remind to the Church that Jesus, His mother, his first disciples and the entire first community of believers were part of the People of Israel. 

Our small communities of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv-Yaffo, Haifa, Beer Sheva, Tiberias and Latrun should be witnesses of the common roots of Judaism and Christianity. This needs to be a part of our identity and our spirituality. “God made no distinction between us and them” – the words of St. James may guide us in our daily choices. 

These words may even help us in these difficult times to reject the tribal mentality and divisions. We cannot agree with those who claim the superiority of their own group of people or nation only because “they are not like us”. We need to show the entire world the meaning of the Gospel’s message: “You are all brothers.”  

As we perceive the horror of war, I want to ask you to pray for the release of 134 hostages. Please, surround all the soldiers, especially those from our communities, with your prayers. But we cannot forget that human suffering has no flag: tears have no nationality. We call upon God’s help for all who are in pain, for those who are hungry and wounded, for those who are driven away from their homes, and for those who have lost their family members.  

In today’s Gospel, the Lord teaches us how to build a house on a strong rock, not on sand. Calling Him ‘Lord’ is not yet real faith. Doing the Will of the Heavenly Father is the condition of Salvation. And His will is that we: “love one another”. Let us reject hate and negative feelings. Today, as we celebrate together, let us send the message of Peace and Love to the entire world: we all have the same Father, so we need to love each other like brothers and sisters. This way, we will build our small, fragile, but beautiful Mother Church on a solid foundation, on a rock of God’s Mercy. Happy Feast!