This Sunday, July 25, our parish celebrates the feast of its patron, St. James. He is referred to as James the Great or Elder. He is the brother of St. John the evangelist; they are referred to as “sons of thunder” (Boanerges) in the Gospel of Mark.  Our parish received his name in 1863 when its founding pastor, Fr. James Reid, requested that the parish take his baptismal name.
 
Though not much is known about any of the 12 apostles, history and legend fills volumes of which it is difficult to distinguish one from the other. From the scriptures we know that St. James held special significance as he is one of the three known as the “kindred spirits.” It was James along with his brother John and Peter who were summoned to the Mount of Transfiguration to experience the Lord’s transfiguration in all its glory. There they were privy to the conversation between Moses, Elijah and Jesus as they discussed his “passage.” The scene is recorded in the vivid colors of the stained glass win- dow above our baptismal font.
 
It is known that James was martyred in the year 44 ad by King Agrippa I as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. It is believed that his remains were transported to Galicia (modern day Spain) to the town of Santiago de Compostelo. This town is considered the third most holy site in Roman Catholicism next to Jerusalem and Rome. Since the time of the middle ages (as early as the 9th century) until modern times, Christians made pilgrimage to Compostelo by foot and later on by bicycle (100 km walk or 200 km by bicycle).  In 2008 alone, over 125,000 “compestelo’s” were made. When July 25th falls on a Sunday, such as this year, it is known as a “Jubilee Year,” and the east door of the  Santiago Cathedral is opened to receive pilgrimers.
 
The story of our namesake, James, continues to unfold to this day even as we take up the “spirit” of his name. Known as the pilgrim saint he is depicted by the scallop in art, and is a constant reminder that we are a “pilgrim people” on journey with saint and sinner alike to our eternal destiny of the reign of God on earth. 
 
Happy Feast Day.

Familiarity, in the case of the Lord's Prayer, probably hasn't bred contempt in most of us, but it certainly can breed a kind of inertia. The words we speak in prayer run the same risks as all our other human words: they can be spoken hastily, thoughtlessly, carelessly. In a manner parallel to the words we say in the Lord's Prayer--"forgive us as we forgive others"--today might be the day to invite God to "listen to us as well as we listen to you." Today might be the day to listen to the Lord's Prayer with newly attentive ears.

Let us learn from the example of Luke's Jesus, who would not instruct others how to pray until he himself had been a man of prayer. Moreover, listen carefully to the follow-up Jesus gives for the prayer itself. In our quick-fix society we must heed the call to persistence; in a world that puts glib explanations on difficult situations we must continue to seek and knock; in our all-too-humanness, we must be open to the patience, grace, and wisdom of the will of God. Do we want the Lord to listen to our voice? Maybe we can start by listening to God's.
(c) Copyright, J. S. Paluch Co.

The parable in today's Gospel is one of the best known of all the teachings of Jesus. The term "Good Samaritan" has been used to name various charitable organizations and is even the official name of one state's emergency roadside assistance program that helps stranded motorists. With the prevalence of the terminology used to describe various activities in our day, we might be led to forget the message of this Gospel passage. This man, this Samaritan, was the only one who offered the beaten man help. Samari- tans, remember, were considered the lowest of the low in the time of Christ. A good Jewish person would not even have gone near a Samaritan for fear of being rendered impure. The Samaritan was motivated solely by the sense that the poor man needed help. He didn't care about religious or social status. And Jesus' message is that we are to do the same.
(c) Copyright, J. S. Paluch Co.

"You are the man." These words, spoken to King David by the prophet Nathan in the passage just before today's first reading, were a wake-up call to David that he had done wrong in taking the wife of Uriah and having Uriah killed in battle. The story that woke David up to his own guilt was about a rich man who had many sheep, but took and slaughtered the only sheep of a poor man. David thought the man should be punished, but when Na- than made known to him that this story was about David himself, David woke up to his own sin and repented, and the Lord forgave him.
 
Today's psalm of David reinforces for us the necessity of recognizing our own guilt and confessing it before the Lord. Then "[blessed is the one whose fault is taken away, / whose sin is covered" (Psalm 32:1). God becomes our shelter, and gives us back our freedom.
 
(c) Copyright, J. S. Paluch Co