CELEBRATE THE ROOTS OF OUR FAITH

Feast of Sts. Philip and James, Apostles
Jn 14:6-14

We celebrate today the feast of the apostles, Philip and James.

Though with a Greek name, Philip, like Peter and Andrew, was from Bethsaida. This suggests that Philip must have been a fisherman, too. He brought another would-be apostle, Bartholomew, to Jesus. He preached the Gospel in Phrygia where he was also crucified at Hierapolis. He figures in the Gospel today as Jesus asserts, “He who sees me, sees the Father…I am in the Father and the Father is in me.”

James (“the Less” because he was younger than the other James was) was a relative of the Lord, most probably, the Lord’s cousin. He became the first bishop of Jerusalem and wrote the epistles we read in the New Testament. Like Philip, James died a martyr’s death. He was thrown down from the terrace of the Temple and then stoned to death.

When we celebrate the feast of the apostles, we celebrate the roots of our Faith. We come to believe in Jesus as the Christ through the testimony of the apostles. The apostles handed down to us the Faith we now profess. Fidelity to their teachings is fidelity to the Faith.

Both Philip and James did not only preach the Gospel through words. They proclaimed it very clearly through the shedding of their blood. By handing down the Faith to us, they were handed down to death. Let us treasure the Faith we have received from the apostles. Let us never alter it. Let us be faithful to it even, if needed, to the shedding of blood.