Feast of St. James

July 25, 2002

by Very Rev. Edward Correia

 

We are gathered together to celebrate the Feast of our Patron and to celebrate who we are as parish. We are joined to Christina Zajac and Michael Prystarz who are in Toronto, Canada with 250,000 young people from all over the world to join Pope John Paul II in celebrating World Youth Day. We join all of our fellow parishioners in this celebration.

Tonight we are going to bless the roses that are near the statue of St. James. We invite you to take them home or give them to people who couldn’t be here today.

The rose is a symbol of St. James and who we are as a parish. The rose is beautifully made with each fragile petal. St. Paul tells us in the first reading that we are delicately made. St. James was wonderfully and uniquely made to be a follower of Christ. We are earthen vessels that hold a wonderful treasure. The treasure that we hold is the call to the same discipleship of James.

The rose is red in color. Red is the color of this celebration because James gave his life in martyrdom for the Lord. We are called to give our lives to one another in a very special way.

Just as the color red saturates the rose, so too our faith colors all of our lives. We cannot separate our faith from our lives. It is our Faith that helps us to see the presence of God in all that we experience.

James shared his faith with others by his preaching. We are called to share our Faith with one another. The rose is a special gift because we give it others. We are not alone in our journey to God.

We go to God with one another. We are a parish to help one another to get closer to God.

Renew is a spiritual program that will be experienced in our parishes. It has as one of its ingredients groups that meet for six weeks once a week beginning in October and Lent to share our Faith. Just to share how God has colored our lives with his presence and love. How people need to hear from one another how God is in their lives.

On Sunday, September 15 we will have a Day of Prayer in our hall when parishioners will share the color of their Faith with us.

This is not an easy thing to do. Yet, when the mother of James and John asked that her sons receive the special places of honor in heaven, Jesus could not give them that honor. He instead invited them into the work of giving their lives to God even when it hurts and is difficult.

The rose has a wonderful aroma. The aroma of our lives is given when we share our Faith with one another.

How beautiful a sight it is to see all the roses joined to together. May this be a sign of the beauty that we can give to the world as we strive to become closer to one another in Faith.