Feast of Saints Philip and James, Apostles
Lectionary: 561
Lectionary: 561
I am reminding you, brothers and sisters,
of the Gospel I preached to you,
which you indeed received and in which you also stand.
Through it you are also being saved,
if you hold fast to the word I preached to you,
unless you believed in vain.
For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received:
that Christ died for our sins
in accordance with the Scriptures;
that he was buried;
that he was raised on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures;
that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve.
After that, he appeared to more
than five hundred brothers and sisters at once,
most of whom are still living,
though some have fallen asleep.
After that he appeared to James,
then to all the Apostles.
Last of all, as to one born abnormally,
he appeared to me.
of the Gospel I preached to you,
which you indeed received and in which you also stand.
Through it you are also being saved,
if you hold fast to the word I preached to you,
unless you believed in vain.
For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received:
that Christ died for our sins
in accordance with the Scriptures;
that he was buried;
that he was raised on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures;
that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve.
After that, he appeared to more
than five hundred brothers and sisters at once,
most of whom are still living,
though some have fallen asleep.
After that he appeared to James,
then to all the Apostles.
Last of all, as to one born abnormally,
he appeared to me.
Responsorial
PsalmPS 19:2-3, 4-5
R. (5) Their
message goes out through all the earth.
or:
R. Alleluia.
The heavens declare the glory of God;
and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.
Day pours out the word to day;
and night to night imparts knowledge.
R. Their message goes out through all the earth.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Not a word nor a discourse
whose voice is not heard;
Through all the earth their voice resounds,
and to the ends of the world, their message.
R. Their message goes out through all the earth.
or:
R. Alleluia.
or:
R. Alleluia.
The heavens declare the glory of God;
and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.
Day pours out the word to day;
and night to night imparts knowledge.
R. Their message goes out through all the earth.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Not a word nor a discourse
whose voice is not heard;
Through all the earth their voice resounds,
and to the ends of the world, their message.
R. Their message goes out through all the earth.
or:
R. Alleluia.
AlleluiaJN 14:6B, 9C
R. Alleluia,
alleluia.
I am the way, the truth, and the life, says the Lord;
Philip, whoever has seen me has seen the Father.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I am the way, the truth, and the life, says the Lord;
Philip, whoever has seen me has seen the Father.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
GospelJN 14:6-14
Jesus said to Thomas, "I am the way and the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.
If you know me, then you will also know my Father.
From now on you do know him and have seen him."
Philip said to him,
"Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us."
Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you for so long a time
and you still do not know me, Philip?
Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.
How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?
Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?
The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own.
The Father who dwells in me is doing his works.
Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me,
or else, believe because of the works themselves.
Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever believes in me will do the works that I do,
and will do greater ones than these,
because I am going to the Father.
And whatever you ask in my name, I will do,
so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it."
No one comes to the Father except through me.
If you know me, then you will also know my Father.
From now on you do know him and have seen him."
Philip said to him,
"Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us."
Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you for so long a time
and you still do not know me, Philip?
Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.
How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?
Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?
The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own.
The Father who dwells in me is doing his works.
Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me,
or else, believe because of the works themselves.
Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever believes in me will do the works that I do,
and will do greater ones than these,
because I am going to the Father.
And whatever you ask in my name, I will do,
so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it."
Meditation: "Lord, show us the Father"
What's the greatest thing we can aim for in this life?
- To know God. What is the best thing we can possess in this life, bringing
more joy, contentment, and happiness, than anything else? - Knowledge of
God. Thus says the Lord: "Let not the wise man glory in his
wisdom, let not the mighty glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in
his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and
knows me" (Jeremiah 9:23-24). One of the greatest truths of the
Christian faith is that we can know the living God. Our knowledge of God is not
simply limited to knowing something about God, but we can know God personally.
The essence of Christianity, and what makes it distinct from Judaism and other
religions, is the personal knowledge of God as our Father.
Jesus makes it possible for each of us to personally
know God as our Father. To see Jesus is to see what God is like. In Jesus we
see the perfect love of God - a God who cares intensely and who yearns over men
and women, loving them to the point of laying down his life for them upon the
Cross. Jesus is the revelation of God - a God who loves us unconditionally -
without reservation, unselfishly - for our sake and not his, and perfectly -
without neglecting or forgetting us even for a brief moment. Jesus promises
that God the Father will hear our prayers when we pray in his name. That is why
Jesus taught his followers to pray with confidence, Our Father who art
in heaven ..give us this day our daily bread (Matthew 6:9,11; Luke
11:2-3). Do you pray to your Father in heaven with joy and
confidence in his love and care for you?
"Lord Jesus, you fill us with the joy of your
saving presence and you give us the hope of everlasting life with God our
Father in Heaven. Show me the Father that I may know and glorify him
always."
Daily Quote from the early church fathers: All nature serves for our instruction,
by Leo the Great, 400-461 A.D.
"All nature serves the Word of God for our
instruction. Through all the turning points of the year, as if through the four
Gospels, we learn from the unceasing trumpet both what we should preach and
what we should do... What is there through which the truth does not speak to
us? Its voice is heard in the day, it is heard in the night, and the beauty of
all things, established by the work of one God, does not cease to put into the
ears of our hearts a ruling order, to let us see the 'invisible things of God
through those which have been made intelligible to us,' and it is subject not
to the creatures but to the Creator of all things." (excerpt from Sermon 19,2)
FEAST OF SAINTS PHILIP AND JAMES, APOSTLES
THURSDAY, MAY 3. JOHN 14:6-14
(1 Corinthians 15:1-8; Psalm 19)
THURSDAY, MAY 3. JOHN 14:6-14
(1 Corinthians 15:1-8; Psalm 19)
KEY VERSE: "The one who believes in me will also do the works that I do" (v. 12).
TO KNOW: Jesus told his disciples that he was the "way" to God's "truth and life" (v.6). When Philip asked for some manifestation of the Father, Jesus told him that if he really understood who he was, he would "see" the Father. Jesus was the flesh and blood revelation of God. His words and works were not his alone; they came from his unity with the Father. If Jesus' disciples could not believe what he told them, then at least they should believe in the deeds that he did. He promised that those who had faith in him would be empowered by the Spirit to do even greater works than he had done. When Jesus returned to the Father, he would continually intercede on their behalf (Ro 8:34; Hb 4:14 - 5:10).
TO LOVE: Do I hand on the faith that I have received, just as the apostles did in their time?
TO SERVE: St. Philip and St. James, pray that the Church will have the grace to accomplish Christ's works on earth as you did.
FEAST OF SAINTS PHILIP AND SAINT
JAMES, APOSTLES
Philip was born in Bethsaida, Galilee, and may have been a disciple of Saint John the Baptist. Philip was called by Jesus (Jn 1:43-48) on the day after Peter and Andrew. Philip began his evangelizing efforts by bringing Nathaniel (Bartholomew) to Jesus. When Nathaniel asked, "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" Philip replied: "Come and see" (Jn 1:43). Philip was present at the miracle of the loaves and fishes (6:1-15), and was the Apostle approached by the Hellenistic Jews from Bethsaida to introduce them to Jesus (12:21ff). Just before the Passion, Jesus answered Philip's query to show them the Father (14:8ff), but no further mention of Philip is made in the New Testament beyond his listing among the apostles awaiting the Holy Spirit in the Upper Room (Acts 1:13). According to tradition, Philip preached in Greece and was crucified at Hierapolis in Phrygia under Emperor Domitian, c. 80 AD.
The names "James the Less" or "James the Younger" is usually applied to James the son of Alphaeus (Mk 15:40). He was favored by an appearance of the Risen Christ (I Cor 15:7). After the dispersion of the Apostles he was made Bishop of Jerusalem. He was visited by Saint Paul (Gal 1:19), and spoke after Peter at the meeting of the Apostles in Jerusalem (Acts 15:13). A tradition said that when James was ninety-six years old and had governed the Church for thirty years in a most holy manner, he refused to deny the Divinity of Christ. He was cast down from the terrace of the temple and clubbed to death. The Breviary contains a very moving description of his death. "As he lay there half dead, with legs broken by the fall, he lifted his hands toward heaven and prayed to God for the salvation of his enemies, saying: ‘Lord, forgive them for they know not what they do!’ While the Apostle was still praying, a fuller struck his head a mortal blow." His relics now rest next to those of Saint Philip in the church of the Holy Apostles in Rome, and their names are mentioned in the first list in the Canon of the Mass.
Thursday 3 May
2018
Ss Philip and James.
1 Corinthians 15:1-8. Psalm 18(19):2-5. John 14:6-14.
Their message goes out through all the earth—Psalm
18(19):2-5.
Lord, show us the Father.
It
is easy to sympathise with Philip’s question. The mystery of the Incarnation
confronts us with a face of God that is contrary to many popular images. There
are no bright lights and heavenly choirs. Instead we see a man like us.
Jesus
reveals to us the desire of the Father to relate to our human predicament. In
doing so, he touches those areas of our lives that we prefer to keep hidden.
The aim is not to judge but to draw us into the intimacy of the Trinity.
The
repeated language of indwelling that John employs is an attempt to convey the
depth of this intimacy that the Father and Son both share and offer to share
with us.
Saints Philip and James
Saint of the Day for May 3
(? – ?)
 |
| Detail of reredos | Polytych by Maestà | Wikimedia |
Saints Philip and James’ Story
James, Son of Alphaeus: We know nothing of this man
except his name, and, of course, the fact that Jesus chose him to be one of the
12 pillars of the New Israel, his Church. He is not the James of Acts,
son of Clopas, “brother” of Jesus and later bishop of Jerusalem and the
traditional author of the Letter of James. James, son of Alphaeus, is also
known as James the Lesser to avoid confusing him with James the son of Zebedee,
also an apostle and known as James the Greater.
Philip: Philip came from the same town as Peter
and Andrew, Bethsaida in Galilee. Jesus called him directly, whereupon he
sought out Nathanael and told him of the “one about whom Moses wrote” (Jn
1:45).
Like the other apostles, Philip took a long time coming to
realize who Jesus was. On one occasion, when Jesus saw the great multitude
following him and wanted to give them food, he asked Philip where they should
buy bread for the people to eat. Saint John comments, “[Jesus] said this to
test him, because he himself knew what he was going to do” (Jn 6:6). Philip
answered, “Two hundred days’ wages worth of food would not be enough for each
of them to have a little [bit]” (Jn 6:7).
John’s story is not a put-down of Philip. It was simply
necessary for these men who were to be the foundation stones of the Church to
see the clear distinction between humanity’s total helplessness apart from God
and the human ability to be a bearer of divine power by God’s gift.
On another occasion, we can almost hear the exasperation in
Jesus’s voice. After Thomas had complained that they did not know where Jesus
was going, Jesus said, “I am the way … If you know me, then you will also know
my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him” (Jn 14:6a, 7). Then
Philip said, “Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us” (Jn
14:8). Enough! Jesus answered, “Have I been with you for so long a time and you
still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn
14:9a).
Possibly because Philip bore a Greek name or because he was
thought to be close to Jesus, some gentile proselytes came to him and asked him
to introduce them to Jesus. Philip went to Andrew, and Andrew went to Jesus.
Jesus’s reply in John’s Gospel is indirect; Jesus says that now his “hour” has
come, that in a short time he will give his life for Jew and gentile alike.
Reflection
As in the case of the other apostles, we see in James and Philip
human men who became foundation stones of the Church, and we are reminded again
that holiness and its consequent apostolate are entirely the gift of God, not a
matter of human achieving. All power is God’s power, even the power of human
freedom to accept his gifts. “You will be clothed with power from on high,”
Jesus told Philip and the others. Their first commission had been to expel
unclean spirits, heal diseases, announce the kingdom. They learned, gradually,
that these externals were sacraments of an even greater miracle inside their
persons—the divine power to love like God.
Saints Philip and James are the Patron Saints of:
Uruguay
LECTIO DIVINA: STS. PHILIP AND
JAMES, APOSTLES
Lectio Divina:
Thursday, May 3, 2018
1) OPENING PRAYER
Lord our God,
we praise and thank You on the feast
of Your apostles Philip and James.
Through them many have come to know
that Jesus is alive and risen.
May we too be good witnesses
to the risen Jesus
by the way we live His risen life.
Even though we are flawed and weak,
may people find through us
the way to the Father of Jesus our Lord.
we praise and thank You on the feast
of Your apostles Philip and James.
Through them many have come to know
that Jesus is alive and risen.
May we too be good witnesses
to the risen Jesus
by the way we live His risen life.
Even though we are flawed and weak,
may people find through us
the way to the Father of Jesus our Lord.
2) GOSPEL READING - JOHN
14:6-14
Jesus said to Thomas, "I am the way
and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If
you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and
have seen him." Philip said to him, "Master, show us the Father, and
that will be enough for us." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you
for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me
has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Do you not believe
that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you
I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works.
Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else, believe
because of the works themselves. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in
me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I
am going to the Father. And whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the
Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything of me in my name, I
will do it."
3) REFLECTION
• Today’s Gospel, the Feast of the
Apostles Philip and James, is the same one we meditated on during the 4th week
of Easter. It narrates Philip’s request to Jesus: “Show us the Father,
and that is enough for us.”
• John 14:6: I am the Way, the
Truth, and the Life: Thomas had addressed a question to Jesus: “Lord,
we do not know where You are going. How can we know the way?” (Jn 14:5). Jesus
answers, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one can come to the
Father except through Me.” Three important words. Without the way, we
cannot walk. A “way” is not only a path, but a method of performing or doing.
In this case, His way is to be our way. Without the truth one cannot make a
good choice. In life, things are not always what they seem to be. We can be
easily deceived, especially with fake news, flawed beliefs, and the evil that
still inhabits the world. It is important to focus on the Truth and not be
deceived. He is the Truth. Without life, there is only death! Jesus explains
the meaning. He is the way, because no one “comes to the Father except through
Me”. And He is the gate through which the sheep go in and out (Jn 10:9). Jesus
is the Truth because looking at Him, we are seeing the image of the Father. “If
you know Me, you will know My Father also!” Jesus is Life, because walking like
Jesus we will be united to the Father and will have life in us!
• John 14:7: To know Jesus is to
know the Father. Thomas had asked, “Lord, we do not know where You are
going. How can we know the way?” Jesus answers, “I am the Way, the Truth and
the Life! No one comes to the Father except through Me.” And He
adds, “If you know Me, you will know My Father also. From this moment
you have known Him and have seen Him.” This is the first phrase of
today’s Gospel. Jesus always speaks about the Father, because it was the life
of the Father that appeared in everything that Jesus said and did. This
continuous reference to the Father causes Philip to ask the question.
• John 14:8-11: Philip asks, “Show
us the Father and then we will be satisfied!” It was the
disciples’ desire, the desire of many people within the communities of the
Beloved Disciple, and it is the desire of many people today. What do people do
to see the Father whom Jesus speaks of so much? Jesus’ answer is very
beautiful, and it is valid even today: “Have I been with you all this
time, Philip, and you still do not know Me? Anyone who has seen Me has seen the
Father!” People should not think that God is far away from us, at a
distance and unknown. Anyone who wants to know who God the Father is, it
suffices for him to look at Jesus. He has revealed Him in the words and
gestures of His life! “The Father is in Me and I am in the Father!” Through His
obedience, Jesus has fully identified Himself with the Father. At every moment,
He did what the Father told Him to do (Jn 5:30; 8:28-29,38). This is why, in
Jesus everything is the revelation of the Father! The signs or works are the
works of the Father! As people say, “The son is the face of the father!”
This is why in Jesus, and for Jesus, God is in our midst.
• John 14:12-14: The Promise of
Jesus. Jesus says that His intimacy with the Father is not a privilege
only for Him, but it is possible for all those who believe in Him. We also,
through Jesus, are able to do beautiful things for others as Jesus did for the
people of His time. He intercedes for us. Everything that people ask from Him,
He asks the Father and obtains it always, if it is to serve. Jesus is our
defender. He leaves but He does not leave us without defense. He promises that
He will ask the Father and the Father will send another defender and consoler,
the Holy Spirit. Jesus even said that it is necessary that He leave, because
otherwise the Holy Spirit will not come (Jn 16:7). The Holy Spirit will fulfill
the things of Jesus in us, if we act in the name of Jesus and observe the great
commandment of the practice of love. In his recent encyclical Gaudete
et exsultate, Pope Francis quotes Lumen Gentium: The Holy
Spirit bestows holiness in abundance among God’s holy and faithful people, for
“it has pleased God to make men and women holy and to save them, not as
individuals without any bond between them, but rather as a people who might
acknowledge him in truth and serve him in holiness”
4) FOR PERSONAL CONFRONTATION
• Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the
Life. How do I define Jesus as the Way in my life? As a model of action, or a
map, or something else?
• How can Jesus, as the Truth, be used
in my daily life to guide me through the deceptions in the world?
• As Life, how do I use Jesus as a model
for my life and decision making?
• As we read today’s Gospel, we are
almost moved to say “Philip! Haven’t you been listening?”. Are there times when
I don’t hear what Jesus is really telling me in my own life as well? What are
some of them?
5) CONCLUDING PRAYER
The heavens declare the glory of God,
the vault of Heaven proclaims His handiwork,
day to day pours forth speech,
night to night hands on the knowledge. (Ps 19:1-2)
the vault of Heaven proclaims His handiwork,
day to day pours forth speech,
night to night hands on the knowledge. (Ps 19:1-2)
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét