3 May 2021
Feast of Saints Philip and James, Apostles
St. James the Lesser, who is commemorated today with St. Philip, is taken to have been honored with a distinct encounter with the Risen Christ (1 Cor 15:7). This James, recorded in the first reading, is understood by St. John Chrysostom and others to be the James denoted by St. Paul in Galatians 1:19 as “the brother of the Lord”. What is of such first importance for the life and ministry of all the apostles, is what St. Paul notes he himself had received: that Christ died for our sins and rose on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures and appeared again and again. (1 Cor 15:3ff) The apostles had personally seen Christ, risen from the dead. That is marvelous enough. That James was favored with such a distinct appearance of Jesus is worthy of particular commemoration by us today in the Easter season.
Why are these encounters with the Resurrection worthy to be called by St. Paul “of first importance”? (1 Cor 15:3) Because of who is encountered, who is seen. St. Philip, before the Passion and Resurrection, still not aware (although Our Lord had certainly provided more than sufficient signs) of who he saw we he looked at Jesus, asks Christ, “Master, show us the Father,…” (Jn 14:8) As in a classroom where we may be embarrassed to ask simple questions ourselves, we may learn from the responses given to those with enough courage (or foolhardiness) to ask. Our Lord tells St. Philip, and through the preaching of the Gospel by the apostles we too can now hear that shocking response: “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” (Jn 14:9) The appearances of the Risen Christ are of such first importance, even if in some cases we only know the name of the one who saw Him, because these are not only encounters with a human (though there is nothing missing in Jesus from what it means to be human): Cephas, the Twelve, more than five hundred at once, James, all the Apostles, and Paul have seen the living God! Let us pray for the grace that we, like them, may desire to seek Christ our Lord and our God in the Cross and in the Resurrection, “so that we may merit to behold Him for eternity.” (Collect)