St Philip and St James
by the Revd Dr Robert Wilson PhD (Cantab), Old Roman Apostolate UK
Today we celebrate the Feast of St. Philip and St. James. St. Philip was one of the twelve apostles. He was from Bethsaida in Galilee, the same town as Andrew and Simon Peter. Like them he was initially a disciple of St. John the Baptist, before he transferred his allegiance to the one to whom the Baptist pointed as the fulfiller of the hope of Israel (John 1). Later he was involved in the Feeding of the Five Thousand, the miracle that marked the climax of Jesus’ Galilean ministry (John 6). It is through Andrew and Philip that some Greeks asked to see Jesus in the account reported in John 12.
St. James (not to be confused with St. James, the brother of St. John, the beloved disciple) was the brother of Jesus. In the early Church this was interpreted to mean that he was the son of St. Joseph by a previous marriage. This is the tradition of the second century Protoevangelium of James which portrays St. Joseph as a widower who later marries the Blessed Virgin Mary. This tradition was rejected by St. Jerome in the fourth century because it was based on an apocryphal document rather than the canonical Scripture. Instead, he put forward the theory that St. James should be understood as a cousin of Jesus. This view has subsequently been the most commonly received view in the Western Church. The Eastern Church has continued to follow the early tradition that the brethren of Jesus such as St. James were sons of St. Joseph by a previous marriage. This latter view would seem more probable than St. Jerome’s theory. What is clear is that Jesus’ brethren did not follow him in his own lifetime (John 7), but on the basis of a resurrection appearance to St. James he assumed a leading role in the early Church. He became the most prominent figure at
the Church in Jerusalem, as is shown by his role in the Council in Acts 15 (Galatians 2), in which it is agreed that Gentiles do not need to become circumcised Jews in order to be within the Church, the Body of Christ. Whereas St. Peter and the other apostles travelled extensively as missionaries, St. James seems to have remained in Jerusalem until his martyrdom in 62. St. Philip and St. James came to be celebrated on the same day due to the transfer of their relics to a church in Rome on this day.
The Epistle of St. James stands in the tradition of the Hebrew prophets who preached truth to power. Whereas the kings exercised power, the prophets preached righteousness. Elijah condemned King Ahab over the appropriation of Naboth’s vineyard. Isaiah denounced the rulers of his own time “What mean ye that ye beat my people to pieces, that ye grind the faces of the poor” (Isaiah 3: 15). “Cease to do evil, learn to do well, seek judgement, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow” (Isaiah 1: 16-17). Ezekiel preached the truth, whether they will hear or whether they will forbear. They refused to prophesy smooth things, but instead exhorted high and low, rich and poor, to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly before God.
Since Christ came not to abolish the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfil them, the Epistle of St. James reaffirms the teaching that right faith cannot be divorced from right conduct. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God is this, to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. The world prizes material success, and status and appearance, but the Christian must remember that while man looks on the outward appearance, God looks on the heart. Actions speak louder than words, and our faith is worthless if we do not live out what we believe. For by their fruits ye shall know them.
St. James is sometimes unduly disparaged by Christians because it is seen to contradict St. Paul’s teaching on justification by faith. However, what St. Paul contrasted was salvation by obedience to the Law of Moses with salvation by faith in Christ without becoming circumcised Jews. The Christian who has been justified by faith must then live in accordance with the fruits of the Spirit. By contrast, what St. James speaks of is a theoretical belief that is not lived out in practice. St. Paul also condemns this, for in his epistles he repeatedly exhorts his hearers to live according to the fruits of the Spirit rather than the works of the flesh. St. Paul never contended for faith without works, for he taught that all our doings are worth nothing without charity. St. James teaches that as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead. For a good tree is known by the fruits it bears.
The dead faith condemned by St. James is the same as that which is pilloried in the Gospels as the besetting sin of many of the sages of the time. They are condemned for their love of titles, desiring the first place in the synagogues and in the street corners, and observing the minutiae of religious etiquette, but neglecting the weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy and faithfulness. Those who do not live out what they practice are like whited sepulchres, beautiful on the outside, but inside full of corruption and wickedness.
The Epistle of St. James seems to breathe the spirit of an almost pre-crucifixion discipleship, for the sins denounced by St. James are precisely those that receive most severe condemnation in the Gospels, not least in the Sermon on the Mount. It may be plausibly held to be the earliest of the New Testament epistles, predating the controversies about the role of Jews and Gentiles in the Body of Christ that marked St. Paul’s epistles. St. James was leader of the Church in Jerusalem, and his epistle is addressed to the twelve tribes that are scattered abroad, of whom the first Christians were the faithful remnant. St. James has traditionally been portrayed as an exemplary ascetic, who lived out in his own life the teaching of the epistle that faith without works is dead.
The principle that faith without works is dead is precisely why we venerate the lives of the saints who have gone before us from the time of St. Philip and St. James to the present. For they have been the chosen vessels of God’s grace and lights to the world in their several generations. Let us pray that, rejoicing in their fellowship and following their good examples, we may with them be made partakers of the heavenly kingdom.
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