Today is May 3, the feast of Sts. Philip and James, Apostles.
We read at today’s Mass, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (Jn 14:6)
Today, as we celebrate the feast of Saints Philip and James, we encounter one of the most iconic and consoling verses in all of Scripture. Jesus’ words to his disciples — “I am the way and the truth and the life” — come in a moment of great uncertainty. The disciples are unsure about what lies ahead, and Philip, speaking for all of us at times, pleads, “Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.”
There’s something so tender, so human in Philip’s request. He longs for clarity, for direction and for certainty. And Jesus answers not with a map, but with himself: “I am the way.” In other words, to know Christ is to know where we are going. To follow Christ is to know we are on the right path.
‘Take Christ’
St. Thomas Aquinas, meditating on this verse, writes, “If then you are looking for the way by which you should go, take Christ, because he himself is the way. He who remains with him does not wander in trackless places.” What reassurance that gives us! When we don’t know which way to turn, we don’t need to figure everything out. We need only stay close to Jesus.
The lives of Philip and James bear witness to this truth. Philip, from Bethsaida — the same hometown as Peter and Andrew — was one of the first to follow Jesus and bring others to him. James, the cousin of the Lord and bishop of Jerusalem, became a pillar of the early Church and gave us one of the New Testament’s most practical epistles. Both men followed Christ in life and, ultimately, in death — laying down their lives as martyrs for the faith.
Their example reminds us that the path of discipleship isn’t always easy, but it is clear. Jesus is the way. We won’t get lost if we walk with him.
Let us pray,
O God, who gladden us each year with the feast day of the Apostles Philip and James, grant us, through their prayers, a share in the Passion and Resurrection of your Only Begotten Son, so that we may merit to behold you for eternity. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
