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From: James 5:9-12
A Call for Constancy (Continuation)
The Value of Prayer. The Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick
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Commentary:
7-11. Just before he ends his letter, St James again (cf. 1:24, 12) exhorts his rea-
ders to be patient, perhaps in case some are tempted to avenge themselves on
the rich. He uses the simile of the farmer, who patiently waits for the earth to yield
the fruits of his work: in the same kind of way the oppressed will be rewarded for
all their afflictions when the Lord comes. St James encourages them also by re-
minding them of the patience and long-suffering of the prophets and of Job.
Christian hope, and the patience it induces, enables people to put up with injus-
tice in this present life; but it is not an easy way out of one’s responsibilities nor
an invitation to be passive. A Christian should strive to make this world a place
of justice and peace, but should realize it is a transient place, and not make
these temporal ideals an absolute goal. “God did not create us to build a lasting
city here on earth. [...] Nevertheless, we children of God ought not to remain
aloof from earthly endeavors, for God has placed us here to sanctify them and
make them fruitful with our blessed faith, which alone is capable of bringing true
peace and joy to all men wherever they may be [...]. We urgently need to chris-
tianize society. We must imbue all levels of mankind with a supernatural outlook,
and each of us must strive to raise his daily duties, his job or profession to the
order of supernatural grace. In this way all human occupations will be lit up by
a new hope that transcends time and the inherent transience of earthly realities”
(St. J. Escriva, “Friends of God”, 210).
7-9. St James’ words show how vividly the early Christians realized that the Chris-
tian life should be a time for watchfulness and for looking forward to the Parousia
of the Lord, when our redemption will be finally sealed (cf. Lk 21:28). Jesus did
not choose to reveal the precise moment of his coming (cf. Mt. 24:36); he
stressed, rather, the need to be watchful, to make sure it found us ready (cf. Mt
24:42, 44; 25:13). Therefore, every Christian should live in the expectation of
that event which surely will come, though he knows not when. This is also what
the Apostle means when he says “the coming of the Lord is at hand” and “the
Judge is standing at the doors”, for he may come at any moment.
10-11. The lives of the prophets are a very good model of patience and endu-
rance in the adversity. Some of them in particular (Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah) under-
went great suffering on account of their obedience to God.
“You have seen the purpose of the Lord”: this is the interpretation of St Bede and
St Augustine, referring to the example of patience set by Jesus in his passion and
death on the cross. Most commentators prefer the other possible translation, “You
have seen the outcome the Lord gave him”, referring to Job, who bore patiently
the trials God sent to him (cf. Job 42:10ff), because, for one thing, it avoids ha-
ving to give the term “Lord”, which appears twice in the same verse (v. 11), two
different meanings—Jesus Christ and God one and three.
11. “The Lord is compassionate and merciful”: Sacred Scripture often describes
the Lord as a God of mercy, attributing to him human sentiments like “abounding
in steadfast love”, “bowels of mercy”, meaning that he has tender, even maternal,
feelings towards us (cf., e.g., Ex 34:6; Joel 2:13; Lk 1:78).
St Thomas Aquinas, who often says that divine omnipotence is displayed particu-
larly in the form of mercy (cf. “Summa Theologiae”, I, q. 21, a. 4; II-Il, q. 30, a. 4)
explains very simply and graphically that God’s mercy is abundant and infinite:
“To say that a person is merciful is like saying that he is sorrowful at heart (”mise-
rum cor”), that is, he is afflicted with sorrow by the misery of another as though it
were his own. Hence it follows that he endeavors to dispel the misery of the other
person as if it were his own; and this is the effect of mercy. God cannot feel sor-
row over the misery of others, but it does most properly belong to him to dispel
that misery, whatever form that shortcoming or deprivation takes” (”Summa Theo-
logiae”, I, q. 21, a. 3).
In Christ, Pope John Paul II teaches, the mercy of God is very clear to see: “’he
himself makes it incarnate’ and personifies it. ‘He himself, in a certain sense, is
mercy’. To the person who sees it in him — and finds it in him — God becomes
‘visible’ in a particular way as the Father ‘who is rich in mercy’ (Eph 2:4)” (”Dives
In Misercordia”, 2).
12. This exhortation is almost an exact echo of the words of the Lord: “Let what
you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’, anything more than that comes from evil” (Mt 5:37).
The Jews of the time tended to take oaths far too readily and had developed an
elaborate casuistry about them (cf. note on Mt 5:33-37); our Lord criticized these
abuses, and St James repeats his teaching. However, that does not mean that
oath-taking is always wrong: in fact Sacred Scripture itself praises it when it is
done in the right way for good reasons (cf. Jer 4:2), and St Paul sometimes re-
sorts to it (cf., e.g., Rom 1:9; 2 Cor 1:23). Hence the Church teaches that it is law-
ful and even does honor to God to take an oath when it is strictly necessary and
provided one acts in accordance with truth and justice.
St James’ “let your yes be yes and your no be no” is in fact a summing up of the
virtue of sincerity, a virtue which is very pleasing to God (cf. Jn 1:4 and essential
in human relationships.
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.