James 1:27

There is a story about a man and a lady who ordered two fried chicken dinners from a takeaway restaurant. The girl at the counter mistakenly gave them a bag of money, the entire day’s proceeds, instead of fried chicken. The man and woman drove to their picnic site and sat down to enjoy their chicken dinner. To their surprise, they discovered that it was a bag of money, totaling almost $1,000. They put the money back in the bag, drove back to the restaurant and returned the money bag to the restaurant manager. The manger is overwhelmed. He declares the man a hero and, even a saint. He calls the local press to put the story and the couple’s picture in the local newspaper. “You’re the most honest couple in the whole world,” says the manager. But the man would not let him call the press. Instead he leans closer and whispers in the ears of the manager, “You see, the woman I’m with is not my wife…she’s uh, somebody else’s wife.”

The man and woman might well be heroes in one way, but they were no saints. As St. James tells us, true Christian holiness has to do with doing well to others and with keeping ourselves pure. The couple in the story score high in justice, but they scored low on purity.

Christians, it seems, often belong to one of two camps. Either they score high marks in their commitment to practical justice, but are low in self-discipline. Or they score high in self discipline but are low in practical commitment to justice. St. James, the apostle of practical Christianity, teaches us that a true Christian must score high marks in both practical concern for the welfare of others and self-mastery in order to be truly holy and acceptable before God. In other words, the Christian’s personal and public life must represent him or her at their highest.

St. James teaches the importance of faith combined with action, and he defines for us what true religion is. It is not a matter of merely attending church, reading the scriptures or celebrating inspiring liturgies; wonderful though these may be. The litmus test of true religion is how we live out the word of God that we hear. “But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves,” says St. James. “If any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. (James 1:22-24)

This apostle of practical Christianity or pure religion also uses the analogy of a man who looks in the mirror and sees his dirty face and disheveled hair and goes away without doing anything about it. The word of God, like the mirror, shows us how dirty our faces are and how disheveled our hair is. A wise person would immediately take steps to wash his face to improve his looks. That is the purpose of the mirror which is an image of the word of God. Hearing the word of God alone does not make us holy. It is when we take steps to put into action what the word of God teaches us that we become holy.

Strive, therefore, that your public and private life might represent you at your highest.

Fr. Hugh Duffy