Why did you wear red today?

I had the opportunity today to assist at Mass in a neighboring parish, St. Peter's in Covington. It was part of a big celebration for the Ladies Auxiliary Association and its' new state President, Kathleen Montgomery. The celebrant was Fr. Jeff Bayhi from Baton Rouge who has a wonderful TV proram called Closer Walk Ministries.

We celebrated the Mass for the Feast of St. James. And we wear red vestments everytime we celebrate the feast on an apostle, except St. John. With the exception of St. John, who by the way is St. James's brother, all the apostles died a martyr's death. Hence, red vestments.

St. James and St. John are the sons of Zebedee and seemed to enjoy a special relationship with Jesus. They were present for most of the miracles Jesus performed and were present at the Transfiguration. In today's Gospel, we read of their mom asking Jesus for her sons to sit one on his right and one on his left in his kingdom. And we know Jesus answers that it is not a request that he can fulfill; that decision rests with the Father.

It is believed that soon after the Resurrection and Ascension, James assumes te role of Bishop of the Church in Jerusalem. He is also believed to be one of the earliest of the Apostles to be put to death for faith in Jesus, as early as the year 42. He was killed by the sword, possibly beheaded.

So everytime you see the Priest and Deacon in red, chances are pretty good we are celebrating a feast of one of the apostles, who accepted death as martyrs for love of Christ. Oh yes, we do wear, red vestments when we celebrate Pentecost (for the Holy Spirit), Confirmation masses (again, the Holy Spirit) and on Palm Sunday and Good Friday (the Passion of the Lord).

What other color vestments will you see from at Mass: green, purple or violet, pink or rose, white, gold, silver and black. I may explain more about these colors in a later post. Oh by the way, while blue is not a vestment color, many Marian vestments contain a great deal of blue. These are used sometimes on Saturday masses and feasts in honor of Mary.