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The
Brother of God
St James, the first Bishop of Jerusalem, was a relative of our Lord
Jesus Christ, a cousin that today's liturgy praises as the "Brother
of God."
The argument over who the "brothers and sisters" of Christ
were is, by now, an old one, yet there are still those who will defend
the rather late viewpoint (historically speaking) that these are actual
children of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, born after Christ.
This argument is really only made by those who see the Scriptures as
being separate from the Church, and it is invoked by them as a way to
contradict two millennia of Church witness and Tradition.
That appears to be the main reason behind this argument.
The argument itself is easily torn down.
Despite the fact that "brother" and "cousin" are
used in the New Testament does not mean they have separate meanings.
They are used, in fact, interchangeably.
We who are living in the West based, as it largely is, on the nuclear
family, don't really appreciate the extended, traditional family
structure of Eastern cultures. It
is not just the culture of the Jewish people whose close familial ties
prevented the development of specific terms denoting children of one's
mother versus children of one's uncles and aunts.
This is to be obtained in Ukrainian culture as well.
In Ukrainian, "brother" and "sister" is used
to define parental and other siblings in the extended family.
The distinctions between them are denoted only through the use of
special prefixes.
Again, the nuclear family is really an historical abnormality as far as
family types go and is really the product of the Industrial Revolutions.
Those who comment on Scripture should therefore really beware of
injecting their own cultural biases into the milieu of the New Testament
in which Christ and His Mother, Mary, lived and acted.
There is therefore no Scriptural warrant at all for saying that the
Mother of God had other children besides Jesus. The Fathers of the Early Church, who lived closely to the
Apostles' time and, in a number of cases, were taught by them, were
unanimous in rejecting an heretical claim to the contrary. Even the Protestant Reformers of the sixteenth century were
unanimous in affirming the perpetual Virginity of the Mother of God.
The contrary view is another doctrinal "Johnny come
lately" which has no foundation in either Scripture or Tradition.
By calling James the "Brother of God," we are celebrating,
once again, the closeness to us of God who became Man in Jesus Christ.
Christ is totally "Other," even as He is also our
"Brother." One
writer once described St Joseph as the "man whom God called
'Father.'" And the
Church hails the Mother of God as Her who bore in Her womb the Incarnate
God and Her parents as the "ancestors of God."
So St James reminds us on what intimate terms God in Christ really is
with us.
James reminds us of something else, that is the importance of our
cultural heritage as an integral part of our spirituality.
James was a Christian and a believer in Christ.
As Bishop of Jerusalem, he was also a proud member of the Judaic
Rite of the Early Apostolic Church there.
The early Christians of the Judaic Rite were Jewish converts who
maintained many of their ancestral, Old Testament traditions and
practices. The later Greek
converts brought in their traditions and we even notice some tension
between these early Christian Rites in the Acts of the Apostles.
The Christians of the Judaic Rites attended the Jerusalem Temple for
what later became the "Liturgy of the Word" in our
contemporary Divine Liturgy. They
wore prayer shawls and phylacteries according to Jewish tradition. They observed the Mosaic fast laws and their daily prayer was
largely structured on the basis of pre-existing Jewish Temple
traditions.
As a matter of fact, James or Jacob as he was really called, was so
exact in the performance of the Judaic Rites that many did not know that
he was the leader of the Christian "sect" in Jerusalem.
Many also looked to him as an example of what an observant Jew
should be!
This is why he was placed on a pinnacle of the Temple by the Jews and
asked to tell the people not to follow Jesus as their Messiah.
Much to their chagrin, James then proclaimed Jesus Christ as
Lord, God and Saviour quite loudly. He was then pushed and fell to his martyric death.
The Ethiopian Church is probably the closest example of what the early
Judaic Christian Church of Jerusalem looked like from the time of the
Apostles and St James. That
Church, which is today part of the Oriental (Monophysite) Churches of
the East, has many aspects of Judaism, including the veneration for a
"Tabot" or Ark of the Covenant on their altars.
There is a beautiful Liturgy of St James, the Brother of the Lord, which
is celebrated in some places on this day and on the Sunday after
Christmas, which is the second Feast of St James.
This Liturgy is a long one and its existence "puts pay" to the
ill-advised liturgical theory that early Church liturgies were
originally short and were lengthened over time by the addition of
"unnecessary accretions."
The opposite is really the truth.
The Liturgy of St Basil of later times was also long and St John
Chrysostom's Liturgy, which is the Liturgy in greatest use by the
Eastern Orthodox Church today, is actually the shortest of the four
(including the Liturgy of St Gregory the Dialogist of the Presanctified
said during Lent).
Whenever it is possible, we should take the opportunity to attend a
Liturgy of St James whenever and wherever it is offered.
Perhaps our parish Priest would be willing to serve one on this
day.
It is also the former Liturgy of the Church of Antioch and the
Antiochian Orthodox Church and a number of theologians and Churchmen of
that jurisdiction have already expressed their wish to see this Liturgy
return to their Church as their daily use Liturgy . .
The celebration of the Feast of St James or St Jacob should also remind
us of the fact of our own spiritual roots in Judaism and the Hebrew
Scriptures. The Saints of
the Old Testament are more highly honoured in the Eastern Church than in
the West. Even Adam and Eve
are given the honours of saints.
The very first Church in Kyivan Rus'-Ukraine was that dedicated to the
Prophet Elias, whose feast is very important in the Ukrainian tradition.
And St David's Psalms are so well known in our Church that many
have even memorized them, such as the Kozaks.
The icon of St David features prominently in the icons of all major
Feasts of our Church, for the reason that his Psalms feature so
prominently in the worship services that celebrate them.
The words that each Orthodox Priest recites after Holy Communion are,
"This has touched your lips and will cancel your sins etc."are
actually words taken from the Prophet Isaiah when he saw a vision of God
in the Jewish Temple and an angel who took a burning coal from the Altar
and placed it to his lips . . .
In Ukrainian, Russian and Belorussian, the word to denote someone of the
Jewish faith is "Yevrey" and never "Zhid."
The reason for this is historical.
During the seventeenth century, a Christian sect arose in the
Kyivan Church that was iconoclastic and open to other practices such as
circumcision. The Church
excommunicated these Christians, naming them the "Judaizing
Sect" or that of the "Zhidovstvuyuschikh."
For this reason, the term "zhid" referred, from then on, to
this group of excommunicates. To
be excommunicated meant that one was to be shunned and avoided.
Therefore, the term "zhid" as such, is offensive to
Ukrainian Jews and is not used throughout Ukraine by those of a truly
Christian and courteous attitude.
I wanted to end by sharing this story with you.
A couple of Jewish friends of mine came by to visit and saw my
Icon Corner. They asked me
for some small pieces of paper and, as occurs at the Wailing Wall at
Jerusalem, wrote down what I suppose were their petitions.
They then rolled the slips up and placed them behind an Icon.
Those slips of paper are still there today, I have no wish to ever
disturb them. Today, I am
reminded that those slips of paper written by my Jewish friends are
behind my Icon of St James, the Brother of the Lord! |
