Feast of Saint Philip and Saint James, apostles
(I Corinthians 15:1-8; John 14:6-14)
In today’s gospel
Philip asks Jesus to show him and the other apostles “the Father.” He does not understand that Jesus has done
this since the moment they met. His
mistake is mirrored in all the confusion about the two apostles we celebrate
today.
At times Philip has been misidentified with the Philip of
the primitive Christian community who was appointed to take care of the
Greek-speaking widows. Philip, the
apostle, was a Hebrew from Bethsaida who is mentioned a number of times in the
Gospel of John. James, sometimes called
“the Less,” is distinguished from James “the Greater,” the fiery son of
Zebedee. This distinction, however, is
not the one that causes difficulty. James
“the Less” is also the son of Alpheus of whom almost nothing is said in the New
Testament. He is confused with James,
“the brother of the Lord.” This James,
who may be a half-brother or a cousin of Jesus, plays a prominent part in the
Jerusalem community. It is probably this
latter James to whom Paul is referring in today’s first reading.
Not much is known about Philip, James, or – for that matter
– any of the apostles besides Peter. But
this does not mean they were not important.
Tradition indicates that all the apostles died as martyrs. (The Beloved Disciple, whom John’s Gospel
indicates will not be martyred, was probably not one of the twelve
apostles.) They also formed the group
that Jesus chose as the foundation of his Church. They had the solemn duty to testify to him in
an often hostile world.
