Feast of Sts. Philip and James

One of my favorite verses in Scripture is spoken in today’s Gospel by St. Philip. He asks Jesus, “Show us the Father.” While Jesus has to rebuke him slightly for his lack of trinitarian theological understanding, the desire is exactly right. We should all have this great desire to see God, to know God. Philip learned from Jesus about the love of the Father. He wanted to know God the way Jesus knew the Father. St. James (the less) became the head of the Church in Jerusalem. Both Philip and James gave their lives as martyrs in witness to their love for Jesus. We pray today that we may have the desire to want to be with God and the courage to offer ourselves totally to Him in this life that we might be happy with Him forever in the next.