Wednesday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

I’ve often heard the reason Jesus named James and John  “Sons of Thunder” as having to do with their asking Him to send down fire from heaven to consume the town of unbelievers.  I thought it was a humbling compliment, but one they deserved – a light but poignant way to emphasize that though occasionally misplaced, their fervor was remarkable.  I was delighted to read in Bede the Venerable’s commentary today a slightly different take.  The Sons of Thunder were so named because they heard the voice of the Father on the Mount of Transfiguration.  The voice of the Father like thunder, their hearts moved definitively from the static complacency of a life that sees its completion on earth.  We can perceive that John’s life was intensely altered by the Word made flesh, the Lamb of God, the Beloved Son, Jesus.  John’s conversion to Jesus comes from a Word and a Voice that deeply uprooted his heart.  I wonder if the fervor of the first Apostle to be martyred, James, wasn’t like the echo of the heartbeat of his brother John.  John’s fervor was so contagious he clearly infected both St. Peter and St. Paul.  Perhaps we could say that John loved his brother James so much that Jesus couldn’t refuse James the same graces as his brother.

I prefer reading the meaning of Sons of Thunder as being those who heard the Father’s voice because it emphasizes more the grace that was given to James and John rather than what they did with it.  We will never make better use of grace than grace itself.  That’s why when we read the parable of the talents no one, even the most generous, ever makes more than what he received.  It isn’t what James and John did with the grace they received that earns them their name: they are named, they are called, by the grace they have been given.  So when it seems James and John by their fervor ask for a grace beyond measure, to sit at the right and left of Jesus in His kingdom, Jesus reminds them that all grace comes from the Father Himself.  He invites them to discern that their desire for communion with Him will be fulfilled, that their desire itself is a grace and a gift, and that the way to communion is through suffering and humility.  This discernment will allow them to perceive that God is always the one who acts first, that our love for Him is His gift to us, a gift that we cannot control and that we must first humbly receive through our trials and suffering.

AMBROSE OF MILAN:

You owe that price with which you have been bought. Even though God does not always demand it, you still owe it. Buy Christ for yourself, not with what few men possess but with what all men possess by nature but few offer on account of fear. What Christ claims from you is his own. He gave his life for all men. He offered his death for all men. Pay on behalf of your creator what you are going to pay by law. He is not bargained for at a low price, and not all men see him readily.¹

AUGUSTINE:

Those belonging to the grace of Christ, who are foreknown, predestined and chosen from before the foundation of the world, shall die only insofar as Christ himself died for us, that is, by the death of the flesh only, not of the spirit.²

HILARY OF ARLES:

Why does Peter talk about purifying our souls but says nothing about the body? The reason for this is that true purity comes from within. If the soul is clean, the body will be cleansed as well.³

BEDE:

The two things are so intimately connected that it is impossible to be saved by one without the other. For just as the Lord, during the time of his incarnation, redeemed us all on a single occasion by the shedding of his blood, so we must now in our time become partakers of that regeneration by being born again through baptism. It is well said of this regeneration that it does not come from corruptible seed but operates by the word of the living and eternal God.⁴

EUSEBIUS OF CAESAREA:

This is the nature of all flesh, and the portrait of a man made from clay, I mean someone who loves his own body and lives according to the flesh. Like the grass of the field and like beautiful flowers he will soon wither and die.⁵

HILARY OF ARLES:

Here we see the two sides of the human being. The outer man is like the flower of the field which is mortal and will pass away, whereas the inner man lives forever by the power of the living God.⁶

BEDE:

They knew that among the disciples they were warmly loved by our Lord, that together with the blessed Peter they had often been informed of hidden mysteries of which the rest were unaware, as the text of the holy gospel frequently indicates. Thus a new name was given to them, just as it was to Peter. As the one who was formerly called Simon was given the name of Peter on account of the strength and firmness of his unassailable faith, so they were called Boanērges, that is, sons of thunder, because they heard, along with Peter, the voice of the Father honoring the Lord, and they recognized the secrets of the mysteries more than the rest of the disciples. They sensed that they clung to our Lord with their whole heart and embraced him with the greatest love. So they did not disbelieve that it was possible that they would be sitting closely on either side of him in the kingdom, particularly when they saw that John, for his singular purity of mind and body, was held in such great love that he rested on his breast at supper.⁷

BEDE:

When the sons of Zebedee were seeking from Jesus seats in his kingdom, he at once called them to drink of his chalice, that is, to pattern themselves after the struggle of his suffering.⁷

CHRYSOSTOM:

So the sons of Zebedee caught up with him on the road. They thought they had found the opportune moment. They put their request to him. They had broken away from the throng of the disciples and, just as if the whole situation had turned out exactly as they wanted, they asked about the privilege of the first seats and about being first among the others.9 They asked for this because they assumed that everything was finished and the whole business was over and done with. They made their request because they thought that now was the time for crowns and rewards.⁸

AUGUSTINE:

For the homeland is on high and the way to it is lowly. The homeland is life in Christ; the way is dying with Christ.12 The way is suffering with Christ; the goal is abiding with him eternally. Why do you seek the homeland if you are not seeking the way to it?⁹

CHRYSOSTOM:

[…] [W]hen they sought at this time the privilege of the first seats and the honors of heaven, when they wished to be seen as more illustrious and splendid than the others, they were not asking for these things at the right time. The timing was precisely wrong. For this was not the right time for crowns or prizes. It was the time for struggles, contests, toils, sweat, wrestling rings and battles.¹⁰

AUGUSTINE:

He meant, of course, the cup of humility and suffering.⁹

CHRYSOSTOM:

For when we immerse our heads in the water, the old humanity is buried as in a tomb below, and wholly sunk forever. Then as we raise them again, the new humanity rises in its place. As it is easy for us to dip and to lift our heads again, so it is easy for God to bury the old humanity, and to lift up and display the new. And this is done three times, that you may learn that the power of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost fulfills all this.¹¹

God wants for nothing and has need of nothing. Yet, when he humbled himself, he produced such great good, increased his household, and extended his kingdom. Why, then, are you afraid that you will become less if you humble yourself?¹²

1. ON JOSEPH 7.42.  Bray, G. (Ed.). (2000). James, 1-2 Peter, 1-3 John, Jude (pp. 78–79). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
2. ON THE TRINITY 13.15.  Bray, G. (Ed.). (2000). James, 1-2 Peter, 1-3 John, Jude (p. 80). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
3. INTRODUCTORY COMMENTARY ON 1 PETER.  Bray, G. (Ed.). (2000). James, 1-2 Peter, 1-3 John, Jude (p. 80). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
4. ON 1 PETER.  Bray, G. (Ed.). (2000). James, 1-2 Peter, 1-3 John, Jude (p. 81). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
5. CATENA.  Bray, G. (Ed.). (2000). James, 1-2 Peter, 1-3 John, Jude (p. 81). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
6. INTRODUCTORY COMMENTARY ON 1 PETER.  Bray, G. (Ed.). (2000). James, 1-2 Peter, 1-3 John, Jude (p. 81). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
7. EXPOSITION ON THE GOSPEL OF MARK 2.21.  Oden, T. C., & Hall, C. A. (Eds.). (1998). Mark (Revised) (p. 141). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
8. ON THE INCOMPREHENSIBLE NATURE OF GOD 8.31.  Oden, T. C., & Hall, C. A. (Eds.). (1998). Mark (Revised) (p. 141). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
9. TRACTATE ON JOHN 28.5.2.  Oden, T. C., & Hall, C. A. (Eds.). (1998). Mark (Revised) (p. 142). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
10. ON THE INCOMPREHENSIBLE NATURE OF GOD 8.32–33.  Oden, T. C., & Hall, C. A. (Eds.). (1998). Mark (Revised) (p. 142). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
11. HOMILIES ON JOHN 25.2.  Oden, T. C., & Hall, C. A. (Eds.). (1998). Mark (Revised) (pp. 142–143). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
12. ON THE INCOMPREHENSIBLE NATURE OF GOD 8.46–47.  Oden, T. C., & Hall, C. A. (Eds.). (1998). Mark (Revised) (p. 143). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.