Please read this passage before reading this homily.
Who is this James whose name graces this portion of the Sacred Scriptures? The Christian Scriptures knows three people named James. They are James, the brother of John, an apostle; James, son of Alphaeus, also an apostle; and James, brother of the Lord. Of the three, this James is probably the one termed “brother of the Lord”, although possible he could be someone different from the three others. He does, however, write in excellent Greek.
He knows Judaism and his writing is very concrete, as the Hebrew language is, not abstract as Greek tends to be. He also is at home with the early Christian communities. He calls himself a slave, or servant, of the Lord, not an apostle.
Who is he? We can guess, but without knowing for certain. In the end it does not matter. Much as we in humanness want to identify the author, the author’s identity does not matter. Like many other books of the Bible, the name attributed to the letter tells us that the letter comes to us with the authority of the one named. Thus, this letter of James has the authority of the James of the early community. What matters, then, is that the author’s writing was accepted by the Christian community as part of the Sacred Scriptures. This letter of James, like all the other books of the Christian Scriptures, is part of the Bible because the early Christians accepted it as part of the Bible and passed it on to us.
The letter is addressed to us because we are members of the twelve tribes of the diaspora, the scattered members of God’s people. We are part of this group and we long for the total and complete gathering of all God’s people into Christ. We long for this gathering even if we have to wait until the end of time. Because we are all part of God’s plan to gather in all who are scattered, James tells us that we all need joy, wisdom and the humility of the poor of the world.
Lent begins Wednesday and this will limit the days when we publicly read from this letter to to today and tomorrow. Lent, however, will give us opportunity to have joy despite hardship, to eek wisdom and to practice humility.