Friday, May 3, 2019
Philip & James,
Apostles
1st Reading:
1 Cor 15:1-8
Gospel: John 14:6-14
Jesus said to Thomas, “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me. If you know me, you will know the Father also; indeed you know him and you have seen him.”
Philip asked him, “Lord, show us the Father and that is enough.” Jesus said to him, “What! I have been with you so long and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever sees me sees the Father; how can you say: ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?
“All that I say to you, I do not say of myself. The Father who dwells in me is doing his own work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; at least believe it on the evidence of these works that I do.
“Truly, I say to you, the one who believes in me will do the same works that I do; and he will even do greater than these, for I am going to the Father. Everything you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. And everything you ask in calling upon my Name, I will do.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
Today’s Feast of Phillip and James calls our attention to the role martyrdom plays in the Church. James was the first of the Apostles to be martyred in the early persecutions of the Church while Philip who asked Jesus to be shown the Father was also killed while preaching to the Gentiles.
Martyrs like these two Apostles substantiate the preaching office of the Church. The fact that the work of evangelization has stood the test of credibility up to now for more than two thousand years is because the work has been nourished by the blood bank of martyrdom. It sends a strong message to the recipients of evangelization that the truth value of what we are preaching is worth our flesh and blood. In light of this martyrdom takes highest honor among Christians.
Not everyone though is called to martyrdom. When St. John Paul II visited the Philippines for the first beatification done in Philippine soil in 1981, he told Filipinos assembled for the beatification of Lorenzo Ruiz that to die for the faith is a gift to some, but to live for the faith is a call to all. To live the faith, then, is as honorable as to die for it. Incidentally, dying for the faith may involve a one-shot-deal of torture and pain. But living the faith can be more challenging because it can drag to a lifetime. We who are called to live the faith therefore have the greater chance to contribute more blood to the pool of sufferings that substantiate the truth of what we preach. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M.
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