Whatever happened to St. Christopher? We know that he was a martyr under the persecution of the Emperor Decius in the third century in Lycea in present-dayTurkey, but we do not know anything else about him. Because of that, the Church removed him from the liturgical calendar. However, that does not mean that the Church demoted him or denied his existence. He is still on the Roman Martyrology, the approved list of saints in the Catholic Church.
In the Middle Ages a story spread about St. Christopher. The legend states that he was a giant who wished to serve the strongest, most powerful king. He started out serving a Christian king who crossed himself whenever he heard the devil’s name. Thus St. Christopher went to serve the devil who shuddered at the sight of the cross of Christ. Thus St. Christopher went to serve Christ. He was told by a hermit he would find Christ by carrying people across a river. “After Christopher had performed this service for some time, a little child asked him to take him across the river. During the crossing, the river became swollen and the child seemed as heavy as lead, so much that Christopher could scarcely carry him and found himself in great difficulty. When he finally reached the other side, he said to the child: ‘You have put me in the greatest danger. I do not think the whole world could have been as heavy on my shoulders as you were.’ The child replied: ‘You had on your shoulders not only the whole world but Him who made it. I am Christ your king, whom you are serving by this work.’ The child then vanished.” Thus, he is the patron of travelers.
St. Christopher is still a saint! St. Christopher, pray for us.
Ambition is defined as strong desire to do or to achieve something, typically requiring determination and hard work. It is a good thing to have, depending on what we are ambitious for. St. James was ambitious, but not always for the Kingdom of God. His mother, St. Salome, once asked for the seats of honor for him and his brother, St. John, on the right and left of Jesus in the kingdom. This was an ambition for worldly glory that Jesus rejected for himself and his followers. Jesus' response was to remind them that glory in the Kingdom of God meant drinking of the cup that he drank from. The glory of God is about love and sacrifice and service.
St. James was able to drink of the cup of love, sacrifice, and service. He became the first apostle to be martyred, killed by King Herod. He belonged to the inner circle of Jesus' followers with St. Peter and St. John, witnessing the Transfiguration and being called to pray with him in the Garden of Gethsemane. As an apostle he was sent forth to preach. According to legend, St. James traveled to Spain and proclaimed the Gospel. The shrine at Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain is the site of relics thought to be his. It has been the site of a pilgrimage for about 1,000 years. Every year over a hundred thousand pilgrims travel there.
As we can see, ambition for God, for love, and its necessary elements of sacrifice and service, is worthy of our efforts. We are called to be zealous in our faith, share the Good News of salvation by our lives, our deeds, and our words, as St. James did.
