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- Today we celebrate the feast of two apostles together, Saints Philip and James the Lesser. The reason why we celebrate them together is historical, because their relics were brought to the Church of the Holy Apostles (Dodici Apostoli<\/em>) and buried there together in the ninth century, similar to the reason why we celebrate on October 28 the feast of Saint Simon and Jude, because their relics are interred together in the Basilica of St. Peter. While it would certainly be fitting for us to celebrate them individually, as we do the other eight apostles (including St. Matthias who took Judas\u2019 place), there is a certain fittingness\u00a0to f\u00eate them jointly, since when Jesus initially sent out the twelve to proclaim his kingdom by words and deeds, he sent them out in pairs. It\u2019s quite possible that Philip and James were at one time explicit partners in the proclamation of the Gospel and hence their feast is an opportunity for us to examine something that perhaps we don\u2019t ponder enough: who are our partners in the proclamation of the Gospel?<\/em> If it\u2019s important for police officers to have partners on whom they can depend, how much more important is it for those called to proclaim the Gospel, not only so that we can have each other\u2019s back, but so that we can more easily put into practice the Gospel we proclaim to others. St. Gregory the Great once commented that the reason why Jesus sent out the apostles to proclaim the Gospel two-by-two even though they could have theoretically covered twice as much ground if he had sent them out individually was so that as they proclaimed the Gospel, they would be able to learn and show how to love one another, how to forgive one another, how to live in communion. So today as we get ready to ponder what we learn in the Word of God, we can do so in the context of examining how we can proclaim the Gospel better in tandem with others and who are those whom the Lord has put into our lives with whom we can preach. Certainly Christian married couples are sent out two-by-two. But it behooves all of us to look around to see what friendships we can nourish, what bonds we can form, so that we can live the Gospel better and proclaim it more effectively.<\/li>\n
- In today\u2019s first reading, St. Paul tells the Corinthians and us about the importance of proclaiming the Gospel. \u201cI handed on to you as of first importance what I also received,\u201d and then he describes for us Jesus death, burial, resurrection and appearances. To pass on the Gospel was \u201cof first importance,\u201d in other words, the most important thing he could do and they in turn could do. Why? He told them right before, because it is the Gospel\u00a0that \u201cyou indeed received and in which you also stand [and through which] you are also being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.\u201d When we receive the Gospel with faith and hold fast to it, our lives our made secure \u2014 we stand in it\u00a0firmly \u2014 and we are being saved through it, always in the present tense. The Gospel places our life on the most solid foundation of all and leads to salvation. How could we not want to share that gift with others? As we collaborate with others in the desire to share the Gospel, we strengthen others on that foundation and ever-present work of redemption.<\/li>\n
- But the Gospel is not a group of teachings or facts. The kergyma \u2014 what St. Paul preached about Jesus\u2019 life, death, and resurrection \u2014 is not a bunch of words that we say. It\u00a0is a relationship<\/em>, an intimate covenantal bond with Jesus through the Holy Spirit and in him with the Father. Jesus reveals this in his dialogue with the apostles during the Last Supper, which we have as today\u2019s Gospel. Jesus says, \u201cI am the Way and the Truth and the Life,\u201d\u00a0words that would have startled Jews, who always prayed in the Psalms for God to show them his\u00a0paths\u00a0<\/em>so that they might know and walk in his\u00a0truth,\u00a0<\/em>who always begged him to show them the\u00a0path of life<\/em>. Jesus was saying, “I\u00a0am\u00a0<\/em>that Path, I am<\/em> that Truth, I am<\/em> that Life.” To pass on the Gospel is to help one enter into the life-changing relationship with Jesus, so that they will know where they are supposed to head, what they are supposed to believe, and how they are to live and experience life to the full. Jesus says that it is through the way, truth and life he both reveals and is that one comes to see and know the Father.\u00a0When St. Philip asks Jesus to show them the Father, Jesus reveals that anyone who has seen him \u2014 the perfect image of the invisible God \u2014 has seen the Father because he abides in the Father and the Father in him, because the Father speaks through him and the Father dwells in him doing his works. What\u2019s startling is that Jesus tells us that if we abide in him, if we follow him who is the Way, believe in Him who is the Truth, and enter into Him who is the Life, the Father through Jesus will be able to work in us and those works will be even greater than the works Jesus himself has done in life: \u201cAmen, amen, I say to you,\u00a0whoever believes in me will do the works that I do,\u00a0and will do greater ones than these,\u00a0because I am going to the Father.\u00a0And whatever you ask in my name, I will do,\u00a0so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.\u201d It was one thing for the eternal Son of God to do the works of the Father in Palestine. It will be something even greater for his Mystical Body to do works throughout the world. Jesus himself raised the dead, cured lepers, made the blind see, exorcised demons, fed multitudes with paltry starting material and rose from the dead. What we will be able to do in his name is bring him from heaven to earth under the appearance of bread and wine, forgive sins in God\u2019s name, and love others far more quantitatively extensively than he has loved us. And in so doing, bring many others to receive\u00a0the life, the truth and the path who is Jesus and to which he calls us all \u2014 bring many others to communion with God and with us.<\/li>\n
- St. Philip was one who was always bringing others to enter into communion with Jesus and through, with and in Jesus with the burgeoning Church. Right after Jesus called him, he brought his friend Nathanael to Jesus. Little did he know that Nathanael would likewise become a partner in the Gospel. It was Philip\u00a0who helped find the boy with five loaves and two fish we heard about yesterday, which was the raw material for Jesus\u2019 multiplication of the loaves and fish. It was Philip\u00a0whom the Greeks asked to introduce them to Jesus before the Passion. He was a bridge for others to come to Jesus and that is what every Christian ought to be. This is of \u201cfirst importance\u201d in the Christian life. St. James the Lesser likewise had this function. Many scholars believer he was the first leader of the Church in Jerusalem, the James we encounter in Acts 15 in the Council of Jerusalem. When SS. Paul and Barnabas brought them the case of the Gentiles in Antioch and whether they needed to accept all of the Jewish law and practices \u2014 including circumcision \u2014 before becoming Christians, St. James, together with St. Peter and the other members of the Church, said that they did not, facilitating their entry into the Church. He knew that Jesus was the way, not the isolated works of the Jewish midrash of the Mosaic law, which Jesus himself spoke again in his dialogues with the Scribes and Pharisees. Of first importance was the\u00a0kergyma.\u00a0<\/em>Of first importance was Jesus. So it is always.<\/li>\n
- SS. Philip and James entered into communion with each other even more deeply when the Lord made them one body during the Last Supper. And he sent them out to bring others into that same communion. Today the Lord invites us into that same mutual abiding with him and with others so that just as he said to SS. Philip and James he made say to us at the end of today\u2019s Mass: \u201cGo and announce the Gospel of the Lord!\u201d May we be as faithful to our joint mission as they were to theirs!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The readings for today\u2019s Mass were:\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n
\nReading 1
\n1 COR 15:1-8<\/a><\/h4>\nI am reminding you, brothers and sisters,
\nof the Gospel I preached to you,
\nwhich you indeed received and in which you also stand.
\nThrough it you are also being saved,
\nif you hold fast to the word I preached to you,
\nunless you believed in vain.
\nFor I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received:
\nthat Christ died for our sins
\nin accordance with the Scriptures;
\nthat he was buried;
\nthat he was raised on the third day
\nin accordance with the Scriptures;
\nthat he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve.
\nAfter that, he appeared to more
\nthan five hundred brothers and sisters at once,
\nmost of whom are still living,
\nthough some have fallen asleep.
\nAfter that he appeared to James,
\nthen to all the Apostles.
\nLast of all, as to one born abnormally,
\nhe appeared to me.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\nResponsorial Psalm
\nPS 19:2-3, 4-5<\/a><\/h4>\nR. (5)\u00a0Their message goes out through all the earth.
\nor:
\nR.\u00a0Alleluia.
\nThe heavens declare the glory of God;
\nand the firmament proclaims his handiwork.
\nDay pours out the word to day;
\nand night to night imparts knowledge.
\nR.\u00a0Their message goes out through all the earth.
\nor:
\nR.\u00a0Alleluia.
\nNot a word nor a discourse
\nwhose voice is not heard;
\nThrough all the earth their voice resounds,
\nand to the ends of the world, their message.
\nR.\u00a0Their message goes out through all the earth.
\nor:
\nR.\u00a0Alleluia.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\nGospel
\nJN 14:6-14<\/a><\/h4>\n
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