Homily for the Feast of Philip and James

Today, the church honors Philip and James, the Lesser, as apostles, two men about whom we know so little. We have the most information about Peter and Andrew, James and John. For the others, we don’t even know if we can get their names right because Scripture lists them out separately. 

During Sunday’s readings, we met some of the Apostles on the seashore as the Fourth Evangelist names some of the Apostles, and then he ends with “two other disciples.” Typically, the church celebrates the Apostles on the 25th of each month, but Mark took their place in April, and therefore Philip and James are mentioned in the Easter season and at an odd placement of the calendar. 

Philip we know to be the one who brought Nathanael in the Fourth Gospel to Jesus, and he was a disciple of John the Baptist, and it was significant that a disciple of John, who was great in the Jewish imagination, was led to the discipleship of Jesus. Philip was also, along with Andrew, the one to bring Greek Gentiles to see Jesus, thereby fulfilling the proclamation that the whole world was coming to see Jesus as the Lord. Philip was also at the miracles of the loaves and fishes when Jesus fed the multitudes. Lastly, Philip asked to see the Father when Jesus spoke about him at the Last Supper, as we heard in the Gospel. 

We know much less of James, except he was the son of Alphaeus, born in Caesarea. He is distinct from Zebedee’s son. 

We also know of a James as the first bishop of Jerusalem, but this bishop is referred to as James, the brother of the Lord. This James suffered martyrdom in Jerusalem and is the one who wrote the epistle we have in the canon. 

We cannot forget that these are the men upon whom the church is founded, and no doubt, their deliberations and dialogue would have been instrumental with organizing the mission of the early church. They would have been partners-in-mission to deliberate how to go to the ends of the earth to bring the news that God raised Jesus from the dead. As they huddled together in the Upper Room and witnessed the presence of the Risen Lord, they were emboldened to bring his mission of salvation to the world. We owe gratitude for these lesser known saints whose early decisions, based upon the dialogue and Synodality of the Twelve, have inextricably shaped our church. May we today carry on their spirit of synodality and dialogue as once again the Spirit renews the church set before us filled with many saints, scholars, and skeptics who will never be known to future generations, but are nonetheless crucial to sustaining our mission.