Feast of Saints Philip and James, Apostles
Today is the Feast of Saints Philip and James, Apostles. In the Gospel, we hear Philip make a request of Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” As happens so often with the Apostles and with us, we ask the Lord for things and have no idea what we’re talking about or the implications of what we’re asking. Jesus’ response to Philip reveals the essence of the Holy Trinity, our relationship with God, and our call to evangelize. These two saints whom we venerate today are among the foremost examples of what it means to witness to Christ and share the faith. Let us ask their intercession today that we might know the Father’s love more deeply, understand who we are in the family of God, and have courage and boldness to “do even greater things than these.”
“Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” What do you think Philip was asking? What lay behind his question? Was Philip hoping for a theophany, a brilliant and awesome manifestation of the Father’s glory? Perhaps he recalled Moses’ encounter with God (Exodus 33:12-23) and wondered if it was finally time for the Father to reveal his face, the glory of his presence. In Jesus’ response to Philip, I hear him saying, you’re looking for a demonstration, but I’m leading you to relationship. Jesus says, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father . . . Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me . . . it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me . . .” Jesus helps Philip and us to understand the relationship between Father and Son and alludes to the fuller relationship that is the Holy Trinity. Father and Son relate to one another in love.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church gives us a glorious illustration of this Divine relationship. Paragraph 221 states, “But St John goes even further when he affirms that ‘God is love’: God’s very being is love. By sending his only Son and the Spirit of Love in the fullness of time, God has revealed his innermost secret: God himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and he has destined us to share in that exchange.” God has revealed his innermost secret: God himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and he has destined us to share in that exchange. God has created us in his image and fundamentally that means that we were created to share in this eternal exchange of Trinitarian love. The Father created us in love and for love. This is our identity, our purpose, and our destiny.-In the verses prior to today’s passage, Jesus tells the disciples, “In my Father’s house are many rooms . . . I am going there to prepare a place for you . . . and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” During Jesus’ time, a Jewish man who was engaged to be married built a room onto his father’s house. He prepared that place for his bride and him to reside and establish their family alongside and in intimate relationship with the patriarch of the family. As the sons grew up and married, the house grew larger with more and more rooms to accommodate the generations. Jesus is the way to the Father and the Father’s household – Jesus restores our broken relationship with God and makes it possible for us to know God as Father, as Abba, as Daddy. Jesus establishes us in the family of faith, and we become not only beloved daughters and sons but loving sisters and brothers.
In this spiritual family with God as our Father we have a calling. The appropriate response to the Father’s love is not to lounge and enjoy the gifts and blessings, keeping them for ourselves – the appropriate response is to go, to go and share this extravagant love that we know, to participate, literally, in the eternal exchange of love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus goes on in our Gospel to say, “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” What are these “greater things?” The greater things involve spreading the Gospel to the whole world and demonstrating the love of God in all things. The “Eternal Exchange of Love” constantly pours love into our hearts, into our lives. As disciples we are called to live in the overflow! Filled to overflowing with the Father’s love, we become fountains of love. Everyone we encounter should feel the gentle spray of the love that wells up and showers from us.
This calling is not always easy to live out. Jesus promises, “I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name and I will do it.” The “whatever” and the “anything” refers to the “greater things” – our evangelistic efforts to love as Christ loves, our doing the Father’s will. When we come to Christ with a sincere desire to be his hand and feet, his love, his compassion, his presence, we can be confident that he hears and answers our prayers and gives us the graces we need.
Let us walk confidently today, knowing, as the Catechism assures us, “God himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and he has destined us to share in that exchange.” Let us live out our destiny today! Amen, alleluia!
-Elizabeth Wells