A reading from the holy gospel according to the apostle and evangelist Saint John (Jn 1:43-51)
The following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and He found Philip and said to him, "Follow Me." Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote-Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. And Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see."
Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him, and said of him, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!" Nathanael said to Him, "How do You know me?" Jesus answered and said to him: "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you." Nathanael answered and said to Him, "Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!" Jesus answered and said to him, "Because I said to you, 'I saw you under the fig tree,' do you believe? You will see greater things than these." And He said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man."
REFLECTION
On this 24th Sunday after Pentecost, the Holy Church of God celebrates two great saints: Saint Philip the Apostle and Saint Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessalonica.
In today’s Gospel passage, we have heard the call of the Holy Apostle Philip.
Philip, fisherman of Bethsaida, in Galilee, was among the first to be called by Jesus close to him; today we know his immediate response to Jesus' call from the enthusiasm with which he immediately communicates the meeting with Nathanael: "Come and see". He invites him, responding to his incredulous reaction (Jn 1:43ff.).
John quotes him in several episodes: before the multiplication of the loaves, when Jesus "to test him" asks Philip where he can provide bread to feed so many people (Jn 6:5-6); after the Messianic entry into Jerusalem it is to Philip that some Greeks turn who want to see Jesus (Jn 12:20-22) and it is Philip himself who during the Last Supper asks the Master to show them the Father (Jn 14:8) to witness that only by the gift of the Spirit after the Resurrection will the apostles understand the truth of Jesus, Christ, Son of God and the mission entrusted to them.
The other news about Philip is shrouded in legend but are worthy of consideration for the great interest that was immediately had towards him.
It is, however, likely that, after Pentecost, Philip crossed Asia Minor as far as Scythia (parts of present-day Ukraine) and then Phrygia (in present-day Asian Turkey), in whose capital, Gerapolis, was martyred on a decussated cross, that is, X-shaped and head down, but here the sources diverge somewhat.
According to some apocryphal sources, then repeated in the Golden Legend of Jacopo da Varagine, Philip evangelized Scythia for twenty years, alongside his two virgin daughters he always carried with him.
One day the apostle was captured by some pagans, who dragged him into the temple of Mars and forced him to sacrifice to the statue of the god, but at that very moment the pedestal of the statue crumbled and from the cavity came out a dragon that pounced on the son of the priest who was preparing fire for the sacrifice and killed him with his venomous breath, and along with him also two tribunes, And Philip cast out the dragon, and raised up those who were slain by the devil, and healed the sick because of its pestilent fumes.
Philip arrived at Hierapolis, a city sacred to Apollo and the seat of a very important oracle in antiquity, in the region of Phrygia, where he converted many to Christianity, even the wife of the proconsul. Angered, he had him nailed to a tree upside down, as depicted in traditional iconography. After his death he was buried there.
Many travellers and religious of the following centuries, including Eusebius of Caesarea, mention in their writings the tomb of the apostle healer. Polycrates of Ephesus, bishop of Ephesus in the second half of the second century, wrote, in a letter addressed to Pope Victor I, the following passage: «Philip, one of the twelve apostles, rests in Hierapolis with two of his daughters who kept themselves virgins all their lives, while the third, lived in the Holy Spirit, is buried in Ephesus».
Our father among the saints, Gregory Palamas (1296-1359), Archbishop of Thessalonica, was a monk of Mount Athos in Greece, and later became Archbishop of Thessalonica. He was a preeminent theologian and a proponent of hesychastic theology.
Hesychasmos (from the Greek ἡσυχασμός hesychasmos, from ἡσυχία hesychia, calm, peace, absence of concern) is a doctrine and practice widespread among monks of the Christian East since the times of the Fathers of the desert (4th century). Its aim is the search for inner peace, in union with God and in harmony with creation.
He was probably born at Constantinople of a noble Anatolian family. From his youth, he was attracted to the monastic ideal, and successfully persuaded his brothers and sisters, along with his widowed mother, to take up the monastic life. Around 1318 he and his two brothers went to Mount Athos, where they learned firsthand the traditional hesychastic way of contemplative prayer.
With the encroachment of the Turks, he was forced to flee to Thessalonica, being ordained a priest there in 1326. Afterward, he took up the eremetic life at a mountain near Beroea, and eventually returned to Athos in 1331. Six years later, he became involved in a controversy with Barlaam, a Greek monk from Calabria, Italy.
He was initially asked by his fellow monks on Mount Athos to defend them from the charges of Barlaam. Barlaam believed that philosophers had better knowledge of God than did the prophets, and he valued education and learning more than contemplative prayer. He stated the unknowability of God in an extreme form, having been influenced by a reductionist interpretation of the writings of St. Dionysius the Areopagite. As such, he believed the monks on Mount Athos were wasting their time in contemplative prayer when they should instead be studying to gain intellectual knowledge.
When St. Gregory criticized Barlaam's rationalism, Barlaam replied with a vicious attack on the hesychastic life of the Athonite monks. Gregory's rebuttal was the Triads in defense of the Holy Hesychasts (c. 1338), a brilliant work whose teaching was affirmed by his fellow Hagiorites, who met together in a council during 1340-1341, issuing a statement known as the Hagioritic Tome, which supported Gregory's theology.
A synod held in Constantinople in 1341 also supported St. Gregory's views, condemning Barlaam. Later, in 1344, the opponents of hesychasm secured a condemnation for heresy and excommunication for Gregory, the saint's theology was reaffirmed at two further synods held in Constantinople in 1347 and 1351. Collectively, these three synods in Constantinople are held by many Orthodox Christians and several prominent theologians to constitute the Ninth Ecumenical Council. Between the latter two synods, Gregory composed the One Hundred and Fifty Chapters, a concise exposition of his theology.
In 1347, he was consecrated Archbishop of Thessalonica, but the political climate made it impossible for him to take up his see until 1350. During a voyage to the Imperial capital, he was captured by the Turks and held in captivity for over a year. He died in 1359 and was subsequently glorifiedby the Orthodox Church in 1368.
Contrary to Barlaam, Gregory asserted that the prophets in fact had greater knowledge of God, because they had seen or heard God himself. Addressing the question of how it is possible for humans to have knowledge of a transcendent and unknowable God, he drew a distinction between knowing God in his essence and knowing God in his energies. He maintained the Orthodox doctrine that it remains impossible to know God in his essence (God in himself), but possible to know God in his energies (to know what God does, and who he is in relation to the creation and to man), as God reveals himself to humanity. In doing so, he referred to the Cappadocian Fathers and other early Christian writers.
Gregory further asserted that when the Apostles Peter, James and John witnessed the Transfigurationof JesusChrist on Mount Tabor, that they were in fact seeing the uncreated light of God; and that it is possible for others to be granted to see that same uncreated light of God with the help of repentance, spiritual discipline and contemplative prayer, although not in any automatic or mechanistic fashion.
He continually stressed the Biblical vision of the human person as a united whole, both body and soul. Thus, he argued that the physical side of hesychastic prayer was an integral part of the contemplative monastic way, and that the claim by some of the monks of seeing the uncreated light was indeed legitimate. Like St. Simeon the New Theologian, he also laid great stress in his spiritual teaching on the vision of the divine light.
Dear brothers and sisters, on this day of celebration let us pause to reflect for a moment, how many times during our life have we had a behavior like that of Nathanael? How many times have we doubted the Lord? How many times have we not relied on Merciful Love? How many times have we fallen? We are not perfect and this the Father is aware of. However, the Son invites us to do our best to succeed in being him: "Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Mt 5:38-48)".
Brothers and sisters, even if we are Christians, it does not mean that we have inherited the pass to Heaven. Paradise is a goal to which all of us must arrive carrying our cross on our shoulders.
Being a Christian today is not easy at all because of human selfishness and lack of empathy. However, if we persevere to the end, God will reward us: "Verily, I tell you, you will see the open heaven and the angels of God ascend and descend upon the Son of man."
My beloved brothers tomorrow will begin the Lent that will prepare us to live and celebrate the Solemnity of the Christmas of Our Lord Jesus Christ. During this time of advent and of inner purification, I invite you to pray to make every day a careful and detailed examination of conscience to understand well and in detail what you did wrong when you behaved as disciples of the Lord and on what you can best both towards yourself and in interpersonal relationships.
I conclude my homily with a beautiful prayer of St Gregory Palamas addressed to the Blessed and Always Virgin Mary, Mother of God so that she and your Custodian Angel, who has been entrusted to you from the day of your conception, guide you along this path of interior reflection. So that at the end, you can, together with the shepherds of Bethlehem, praise God with a pure heart and with a firm Faith, for his Son who, inside a stable, became a child to save humanity from its sins.
O pure and virgin Lady,/ O spotless Theotokos
R: Rejoice, O unwedded Bride!
O Virgin Queen and Mother/ O dewy fleece most sacred
O height transcending heaven above/ O beam of light most radiant
O joy of chaste and virgin maids/ surpassing all the angels
O brilliant light of heaven above/ most clear and most radiant
Commanding chief of heavenly hosts/ O holiest of holies
O ever-virgin Mary/ O Mistress of creation
O Bride all-pure and spotless/ O Lady all-holy
O holy Mary, Bride and Queen/ and cause of our rejoicing
O Maiden Queen most hon'rable/ O Mother most holy
More precious than the cherubim/ more glorious than the seraphim
Surpassing principalities/ dominions, thrones and powers
Rejoice, song of the cherubim/ Rejoice, hymn of the angels
Rejoice, ode of the seraphim/ and joy of the archangels
Rejoice, O peace; Rejoice, O joy/ and haven of salvation
O bridal chamber of the Word/ unfading, fragrant blossom
Rejoice, delight of paradise/ Rejoice, life everlasting
Rejoice, O holy tree of life/ and fount of immortality
I supplicate thee, Lady/ I humbly call upon thee
O Queen of all, I beg thee/ to grant me thy favor
O spotless and most honored maid/ O Lady all holy
[I call upon thee fervently/ thou temple most holy][6]
O thou my help, deliver me/ from harm and all adversity
And by thy prayers show me to be/ an heir of immortality.
May God bless you always and fill you with his infinite Love.
ARCHDEACON Michele Alberto Del Duca