Strength in earthen vessels

A powerful paradox of living in the Kingdom is that strength comes so often from weakness. The Roman Catholic Lectionary today is chosen for the feast of James martyr and Apostle. The feast day of this saint is particularly important for the suffering people today in Santiago de Compostela who are attempting to cope with the tragic death of 77 people in a high speed train accident on the evening before the feast of Santiago (Saint James). The nature of believers is proclaimed by Paul to the Corinthians as fragile earthen vessels who show the life of Christ within their lives by the service and love they give to others in the midst of suffering and human failure. The message of our relationship with Jesus is that we are conduits of the great things that God does to free and sustain us which are raised today in praise by the psalmist. The stories of the weak and fragile carrying hope and life to others abound in the history of the recovery program of Doctor Bob and Bill W known as Alcoholics Anonymous. Pope Francesco is shown in press reports today listening to earthen vessels at a Brazilian Addiction Recovery Center speak to him of change and the triumph of Life over death in their lives. The death to self which opens our lives to serve and radiate the Life of Christ is the Christian mission which Jesus explains to the Jewish Mother of the sons of Zebedee as she intervenes for the placing of her sons in places of importance in the coming Kingdom of Jesus. Friar Jude Winkler notes that the Gospel of Matthew is more respectful of the Apostles than the Gospel of Mark where the request to Jesus is made by James and John themselves. The leadership to Life is through becoming a slave, like Paul to the Will of God to be the conduit of life and, as Pope Francesco proclaims, joy to all. Saint James is credited with the wisdom that “prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective”. The tension between God Present and God apparently absent in the wake of great personal tragedy among believers in Santiago and the tension between tradition and reform living in the person of the “Pope of the poor” presents suffering today for earthen vessels who will know the prayer of the Living Body of Christ as they shine with His Love today.

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