My Thoughts 03/05/2022
Today is the feast of Saint Philip and James. The parish at Herne Hill in London is named after these two apostles. I have happy memories of spending two weeks here in the early seventies with my seminary year and Fr John Redford. We organised and preached a Mission. This consisted of a week of visiting and preparing and then a week of Mass and evening services. I was tasked with producing a poster. It was a rather dramatic portrayal of the suffering Christ. Every lunchtime we would meet together for lunch in a local pub run by a Catholic family.
I don’t know how effective those two weeks were but like any such venture our aim was to provide an opportunity for all the reflect on their faith, that is their relationship of love with Christ and the relationship with the Church.
What we know about Philip the apostle comes from St. John’s gospel. It was Philip that introduced Nathaniel to Jesus and in today’s Gospel Philip says to Jesus: “Lord show us the Father, and we shall be satisfied,” and Jesus replied, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father …” (John 14:8–9). Elsewhere in the Gospels, Philip is included among the twelve apostles sent out by Christ, and is ranked fifth in three different lists, after the brothers Peter and Andrew and James and John (Matt 10:)
We seem to know very little about James. He is often known as James the less to distinguish him from James the greater or taller. He was son of Alphaeus. He was most probably put to death in AD62
Let us pray today that like Philip and James we will not hesitate to introduce others to Jesus and give our whole life to him.