James, Son of Alphaeus:
We know nothing of this man but 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” (John 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. St. John comments, “[Jesus] said this to test him,
because he himself knew what he was going to do” (John 6:6). Philip
answered, “Two hundred days’ wages worth of food would not be enough
for each of them to have a little [bit]” (John 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’ 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” (John
14:6a, 7). Then Philip said, “Master, show us the Father, and that will
be enough for us” (John 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” (John 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’ 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.
Comment:
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.
Quote:“He
sent them...so that as sharers in his power they might make all peoples
his disciples, sanctifying and governing them.... They were fully
confirmed in this mission on the day of Pentecost (cf. Acts 2:1–26) in
accordance with the Lord’s promise: ‘You shall receive power when the
Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be witnesses for me...even to
the very ends of the earth’ (Acts 1:8). By everywhere preaching the
gospel (cf. Mark 16:20), which was accepted by their hearers under the
influence of the Holy Spirit, the apostles gathered together the
universal Church, which the Lord established on the apostles and built
upon blessed Peter, their chief, Christ Jesus himself remaining the
supreme cornerstone...” (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, 19).