FORTY-EIGHTH SERMON
ON THE HOLY APOSTLES SS. PHILIP AND JAMES.
Subject.
SS. Philip and James were apostles most like to Christ. 1. The one in his life. 2. The other in his sufferings and death. Preached on the feast of SS. Philip and James.
Text.
" Philip, he that seeth Me seeth the Father also." (John 14:9)
Introduction.
By these words in which He answered the eager desire of Philip to see the eternal Father our dear Lord wished to signify that He is like to His heavenly Father in everything that pertains to the divine nature, and that He has the same perfections, the same divine being with the Father; so that he who sees Him sees the Father also. " Not," says St. Augustine, " that He is the Father and the Son at the same time; but that the Father and Son are so alike that who knows one knows both. For we are wont to say of those who resemble each other: Have you seen him? then you have seen the other, too." My dear brethren, the same, it seems to me, could be said, though not exactly in the same sense and meaning, of both those holy apostles whose yearly anniversary we commemorate to-day; namely, that he who sees and considers those two disciples of Christ, in a certain measure must recognize Christ Himself, their divine Master; not indeed that they have the same divine nature with Christ as He has with His heavenly Father; for they were but men, and what ever good they possessed they had to ascribe to the generosity and grace of Christ; but on account of the exact resemblance to Our Lord which was specially evident in those two apostles; for the one in his life represented the life of Christ, while the other in his passion and death was a perfect imitation of the passion and death of Christ. And this is what I now mean to explain, to their greater honor and glory.
Plan of Discourse.
SS. Philip and James were apostles most like to Christ. Such is the whole subject of this panegyric. James was most like Him in his life: the first part. Philip was most like Him in his passion and death: the second part.
That we may resolve, after their example, to be like to Christ in our life and death, grant us Thy grace, Jesus, most perfect Model and Exemplar of all holiness; we ask it of Thee through the intercession of Mary, of the holy angels, and of the apostles Philip and James, who were so like to Thee.
I do not speak now of an outward resemblance in bodily stature, although even in that respect St. James was most like Our Lord; so that one was hardly to be distinguished from the other; and therefore James was called the brother of Our Lord. "James was called the brother of the Lord, that is, of Christ," says Denis the Carthusian, because he was most like Him in face, in bodily stature, and in manner." The holy martyr Ignatius, in an epistle to St. John the Evangelist, writes thus: " If I may, I should like to go to Jerusalem with you to see that venerable James, whom they say to be most like to Jesus Christ in face, bodily stature, and manners as if he were His twin brother." Therefore some think that it was not without reason that Judas the traitor agreed with the Jews to give a certain sign by which they were to know Christ when he was about to betray Our Lord into the hands of His enemies: Whomsoever I shall kiss that is He; hold Him fast." For he feared that in the dark night, by the fitful light of the lanterns, they might make a mistake and apprehend James instead of Our Lord, so great was the resemblance between them. Be this as it may, I will not delay longer on it; for although the Scripture says of Christ: " Thou art beautiful in form above the sons of men," and therefore James must have been most comely of form, yet that kind of beauty redounds little to a man's praise, as it is the free gift of God, and is not in the power of our free will; and sometimes we find two brothers alike in appearance and comeliness, of whom the one is good and holy, while the other is a wicked wretch, in spite of his beauty.
That for which St. James is chiefly to be praised is this: he was like to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in his manners and conversation; that is, in holiness of life, in morals and virtue. St. Epiphanius says of him: "James is called the brother of the Lord on account of the likeness of manners, not by nature, but by grace." To the same effect writes St. Jerome on the words, "other of the apostles I saw none, saving James, the brother of the Lord ": " Let this suffice, that on account of his excellent virtue and incomparable faith and unusual wisdom he was called the brother of the Lord," For, as St. Epiphanius writes, James was brought up with Our Lord from his childhood, and he saw daily for years the most holy life and wonderful virtues of the incarnate Wisdom, whose every action should serve as our model and pattern; so that he must have increased daily in sanctity by the force of this holy example, and have inherited the disposition and manner of Him in whose footsteps he trod. For if it is true: "With the holy thou wilt be holy, and with the innocent man thou wilt be innocent, and with the elect thou wilt be elect," then James must have put on some resemblance to Our Lord, since even from his childhood he consorted with the Holy of holies, with innocence itself, and with the Crown of the elect; especially since He who afterwards said to His apostles, " I have given you an example, that as I have done to you so you do also," must have daily instructed His companion, not only by example, but also by word and teaching.
To see this clearer, let us compare the two: Jesus Christ and James. For when we wish to know whether the copy is like the original, the picture like the model, all we need do is to set them beside each other and compare them. The foundation of all the other virtues is humility and meekness; the whole life of Jesus Christ, from His incarnation to His death on the cross, was a constant exercise of humility and meekness; and these virtues are the ones He recommends most warmly to His Christians: " Learn of Me, because I am meek and humble of heart." Excellently well did St. James learn this lesson and take it to heart. Of all the apostles he may well be called the most humble and meek. " His eye was gentle and placid," writes Surius of him; and he mentions that as a point of distinction between him and the other disciples. He showed himself so in reality; for if it was to be ascribed to the humility of Christ that He remained unknown to the world for thirty years, concealing the dignity and excellence of His person, and afterwards, during His public mission, wished to be known only as the Son of Man, as He always called Himself; in the same way, says Surius, the profound humility of James caused him to keep the strictest silence about the special graces with which Christ honored him, especially that signal favor Our Lord conferred on him in appearing to him immediately after the resurrection, as St. Paul, inspired by the Holy Ghost, tells us; and this silence he kept so strictly, lest he should be thought too much of. For the same reason in his Epistle he calls himself only by the name of " servant of God." " Although," as Surius remarks, " he might have called himself an apostle or a bishop, or, what is still greater, the brother of the Lord names by which Paul speaks of him, writing to the Galatians yet he seems to delight in the humble appellation, and makes known to the tribes of Israel that he is the servant of God." Christ showed His wonderful meekness in bearing with the uncouthness of His disciples, who at first were very ignorant, and often quarrelled and disputed with one another; and by the same meekness and affability He gained the hearts of the multitudes who followed Him. James was also meek; for, according to the opinion of the Venerable Bede, he was chosen in preference to all the other apostles, after the stoning of St. Stephen, to be bishop of Jerusalem, in order to win the hearts of the Jews, who were embittered by the sharp reproofs addressed to them by the zealous protomartyr. " You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Ghost; " and so great were his meekness and affability that he gained them over in great part to Christ. For nine and twenty years he governed the Church in the greatest tranquillity, and without any opposition, so that the heathen and Jewish converts, who formerly had some disputes with each other, united in regarding him as their father; and even the blind and perverse Jews who refused to be converted held him in the highest esteem.
Amongst the many beautiful sayings which the wise Plato has left the world is the following: "Nothing is more like to God than one among men who is found to be very just." If such is the case, my dear brethren, who will not see the resemblance of James in this respect to Our Lord, who says of Himself: " It becometh us to fulfil all justice," and who was able to challenge His envious foes to convict Him of guilt: " Which of you shall convince Me of sin? " a In the History of his life and in the Annals of the Church this apostle is generally called James the just; James the divine; " James, the brother of the Lord, whom all call the just." Cardinal Baronius writes of him: " He was looked upon by all as most just on account of his great wisdom and the piety which he cultivated so assiduously during his life." On account of the same justice and holiness, as Simeon Metaphrastes testifies, he alone was allowed to enter the tabernacle or the holy of holies in the temple of Jerusalem as often as he pleased, although the high-priest could not do so more than once a year. And although the Acts of the Apostles say that there was a terrible persecution set on foot by the Jews in Jerusalem against the Christians, "at that time there was raised a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem," yet James alone continued to go into the temple, and up to the six and ninetieth year of his age to preach Jesus Christ crucified, in presence of all the people, without the least hindrance; for although the stiff- necked Jews were so embittered against the Christian religion, they did not dare to do anything against the person of James, through respect for his innocence, justice, and holiness of life; on the contrary, each one thought himself fortunate to be allowed to touch even the hem of the apostle's garment, as was the case with Our Lord during His life on earth. St. Jerome says that " such was his sanctity and the veneration in which he was held by the people that they strove with each other to touch the hem of his garment." What the scribes and Pharisees said to Our Lord in their hypocrisy and envious desire to ensnare Him in His speech, " Master, we know that Thou art a true speaker, and carest not for any man; for Thou regardest not the person of men, but teachest the way of God in truth," that the scribes and Pharisees said in earnest to James afterwards, when they tried to induce him to dissuade the people from believing in the faith of Christ: " We beg of you to restrain the people; for we all have confidence in you; for we protest, and all the people with us, that you are just and are not a respecter of persons." l Could any copy be more like the original than James is like Our Lord in this respect?
We know well from the gospel how earnestly Our Lord exhorted His disciples to constant prayer, not only by words, but also by example, so that He often separated Himself from them during the day to go into the mountain to pray, and even deprived Himself of rest during the night for the same purpose: " He passed the whole night in the prayer of God," says St. Luke. We need not say anything of His fasting and mortification; for besides the forty days fasting in the desert, He calls the fulfilment of His Father's will His food and drink: " My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, that I may perfect His work." How did James act in both these respects? He hardly did anything else but pray; he was always on his knees in the tabernacle in the temple, as Hegesippus and Metaphrastes testify; the latter says: " He constantly went alone into the holy of holies; and immediately on entering threw himself on his knees, and begged for the remission of the sins of the people; so that his knees became hard, like those of a camel, from being bent so constantly." The Church of the time had to thank this prayer for the preservation of the life of the Prince of the apostles, St. Peter; for as he lay in prison, waiting to be led forth the following day, St. James assembled all the Christian people, and they prayed most fervently for the release of Peter: " Prayer was made without ceasing by the Church unto God for him; " and Peter was liberated miraculously by an angel. The city of Jerusalem had to thank the same prayer for being saved so long from the terrible punishments and vengeance prophesied against it by Christ as a chastisement for the crime of deicide it had committed; for at once after the martyrdom of James, and when he had ceased praying, the city was taken by the Emperor Titus. With regard to the self-denial of this apostle, we may well say that as his life was a continual prayer, so also it was a continual fast and mortification. We read in the Divine Office that " James, the brother of the Lord, surnamed the just, from his childhood drank neither wine nor any strong drink, and ab stained from the use of flesh-meat; he barely took bread and water enough to still the pangs of hunger, and with these he mingled bitter tears for the sins of the people."
Stern and severe as he was to himself, so he was affable and beneficent to others. " His hands were always employed in doing good," says the author of his Life. Is not that exactly what the Scripture says of Our Lord? Who " went about doing good and healing all." The love and beneficence of both were exercised chiefly for the good of the souls of men; their efforts tended to the conversion of sinners, to lead the erring back to the right path, to keep the just constant, and to bring all, as far as in them lay, to eternal happiness; to this end tended all their preachings and exhortations. What beautiful and instructive lessons St. James gave to his people of all classes you can see for yourselves in his Epistle. There you will read how he encouraged the desponding in temptations; how he comforted the sorrowing in tribulations; how he instructed the rich not to be elated by their wealth, but rather to be humble; the poor to be patient and think themselves happy in their poverty; while he exhorts all to avoid vainglory and much talking, to shun anger, cursing, the love of the world, and similar vices; how he encourages all to practise mercy, charity towards one another, constant prayer, and confidence in God; hardly a virtue is there which he does not inculcate on his people with a most wonderful eloquence. But is not that the same doctrine that Jesus Christ preached during His public mission? Open the gospel and compare the teaching of Christ with that of St. James, and you will be obliged to confess that both speak, as it were, out of one mouth. And where and to whom did Our Lord preach? To the Jewish people alone in the city and country of Judea. " I was not sent," He says, " but to sheep that are lost of the house of Israel."
There you see still clearer the resemblance between them; these very Israelites in Jerusalem were the people to whom St. James preached the gospel; for when the other apostles divided the world between them, and went out to convert the heathens, it was doubtless provided by Divine Providence that James should remain with the Jews. Finally, both received the same reward for their beneficence and love from the same thankless nation whom they had benefited, namely, a violent death; Christ, at the instigation of the high-priests and chief men of the people, was crucified; James, at the instigation of the envious high-priest Ananus and the chiefs of the Jews, was hurled from the top of the temple and killed with a blow of a club.
O holy apostle, what a glory and honor for thee to be so like Jesus, the Son of God, in all things! If the eternal Father has elected for heaven those " whom He foreknew, He also pre-destinated to be made conformable to the image of His Son," how high must thou not have ascended in glory, since from the very beginning of thy life to the end thou hast so closely imitated this divine Son in all thy actions! To the end of thy life, I say; for in this respect nothing but the mode of death interferes with the perfection of the resemblance to the death of Christ on the cross. But this special praise thou dost leave to him whose feast is celebrated on this day in union with thine; namely, thy holy companion Philip, for of all the others he was most like the Son of God in His death, as thou wert in His life. We shall consider this in the
Second Part.
It is true that all the martyrs of Christ are like Him in as far as His passion and death are concerned; for they all suffered with and for Christ, and died violent deaths; yet in the manner in which most of them died we find a great difference. Many had nothing more to suffer than to have their heads cut off by a blow of a sword or an axe; others were poisoned; others died through privation in prison; others were pierced with a spear; others shot with arrows, others stoned to death, others flayed alive, others burned, and so on. Our Lord suffered nothing of the kind. Peter and Andrew were indeed crucified, but none of the things that happened to Our Lord before and after His execution happened to them. To Philip alone belongs the honor of suffering and dying almost exactly like his divine Master in nearly every circumstance. Let us see if this is not the case.
What aroused the Jews and incited them to take Our Lord prisoner and nail Him to the cross was the envy of the high-priests and scribes, who could not bear the doctrine He preached publicly, nor the many miracles He wrought everywhere, especially the raising the dead to life, on account of which the people followed Him in crowds, and listened eagerly to His doctrine. " What do we? " said they, filled with wrath and envy; "for this man doth many miracles. " " Behold, the whole world is gone after Him; " we must not suffer that any longer. We will condemn and sentence Him to death as a sorcerer, who draws the people to Him by the black art. And this plan they determined to carry out; the innocent Son of God was seized in the Garden of Gethsemani and dragged away. My dear brethren, it was also a diabolical envy, and for the same reasons, too, that plotted against the life of St. Philip and eventually caused his death. "This wonderful apostle," says Metaphrastes, "having been appointed to Asia as the scene of his apostolic labors, travelling about that country visited all its towns and villages, and brought a vast number of people to the light of the true faith, all of whom he baptized and brought to the eternal Father; nay, he even cured the sick and freed those possessed by the demon by a mere word, or by the imposition of his sacred hand; and thus he converted a great number to Christ." Amongst other miracles it is to be noted that he raised three dead persons to life. The gospel tells us that Our Lord restored three dead people to life: the daughter of Jairus, the widow's son of Nairn, and Lazarus. That it was that made the envious demon so enraged with our holy apostle; the wonderful and evident miracles he wrought, the conversion of so many souls, the extraordinary spread of the divine honor and glory he could not endure, and therefore he excited the chiefs of the city of Hierapolis, where the apostle then was, and by their aid aroused the heathens against him, so that in their blind fury they fell upon St. Philip and dragged him to prison. Thus this zealous apostle began his passion like Christ, his Master, and from the same cause. See now if his martyrdom was not like Our Lord's passion throughout.
Nearly everything that the gospel tells us of the sufferings of Christ seems to me a symbol of that which was afterwards done to Philip. For if I consider the shameful abuse and blasphemy that the scribes, high-priests, and the Jewish rabble uttered against Christ I hear the senseless heathens raging in the same terms against the apostle of Christ. Hardly had he appeared before the tribunal when one of the chief men of the city accused him of being a seducer and a sorcerer, who befooled the people and led them astray. If I consider Christ as He was dragged by the Jews through the streets of Jerusalem, buffeted, spat upon, and pulled along by the hair, I see Philip, too, in similar circumstances, suffering the same vile treatment from the heathens. And the same chief man of the city, at the first sight of the holy man, was so inflamed with- anger and fury that he became, as it were, beside himself, forgot his dignity and office, and laid violent hands on the apostle, dragged him by the hair from one place to another, and finally threw him into a cesspool, is we read in the history of his life. I will leave you to imagine what the wild multitude did to the servant of God, after having seen such an example in their chief. Metaphrastes describes it in a few words: " They, too, took him and put him into a vile dungeon, and beat him most cruelly." if I further consider how Christ, when under the hands of the reckless rabble, was inhumanly scourged until the blood streamed down from His sacred body, I read also of Philip that he suffered the same cruel treatment from the barbarians, as Surius tells us. Finally, if I cast my eyes on Christ hanging on the shameful cross, which was then looked on as the most painful and disgraceful death, and see Him exposed to the mockery and insults of the crowd on Mount Calvary, in the same way I behold St. Philip hanging on a shameful cross, on a height near the city of Hierapolis, for the honor of Christ and of our holy faith. I do not read in his Life that he was crowned with thorns; but the humble disciple of Christ wished to leave that mark of honor to his divine Master as the King of martyrs; yet we may say that in some measure this crown was represented in his martyrdom, for as he was hanging on the cross, in the utmost agony, the infuriated rabble threw stones at him, thus forming for his head a crown far more glorious than diamonds and precious stones. Truly, he was a faithful servant who so steadfastly followed every footstep of his Master, even to the cross.
There is one circumstance I must not pass by in which the resemblance of the suffering apostle with the suffering Redeemer is still more striking; namely, the manner in which Philip accepted his martyrdom and bore it. We know from the gospel how eagerly Our Lord longed for His passion, how joyfully He foretold it to His disciples, how He congratulated Himself that the time for it had at last arrived, and what wonderful and in comprehensible patience and meekness, love and beneficence, He showed towards His tormentors amidst so many insults, pains, and tortures. In all these things Philip tried to imitate the example of his Master, and to follow it to the best of his ability. From the beginning of his apostolate he desired nothing more eagerly, and in his long and tedious journeyings through different countries and kingdoms, preaching the gospel, announcing the true faith, he sought for nothing more earnestly than the happiness of dying, shedding his blood and giving his life for Him who died for men. And how he rejoiced when, after so many labors, in the eighty-seventh year of his age, he learned by divine revelation the death that was in store for him! As if he could not contain himself for joy, he assembled the chiefs of his Christians, and told them of the combat that was before him. " Seven days before his death he summoned the priests, deacons, and bishops of the neighboring cities, and said to them: Seven days has the Lord still granted me to live." He then exhorted them to be constant in the faith and to rely on the divine aid. " Be mindful of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and act manfully. But the Lord will fulfil His promise, and strengthen and confirm His kingdom." And with what joyous courage did he not learn by revelation that his enemies were already on the way to apprehend him! He could not wait their arrival, but got up at once and went boldly to meet them, and offered himself voluntarily to them, as Christ presented Himself to the traitor Judas and the Jewish rabble. With regard to his invincible patience and meekness, we can well say that, as the Prophet said of the Saviour of the world: " He shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter. . . and He shall not open His mouth; " so we may say of the apostle that as he was led to the slaughter he opened not his mouth, unless to sound the praises of God. And what most surprises me here is the wonderful love and benevolence with which he regarded his executioners, even in the midst of his torments. You know, my dear brethren, that Christ by the mere touch of His hand healed the ear of Malchus, one of the servants of the high-priest who had come out to apprehend Him, and whom Peter had wounded with a sword: " And when He had touched his ear He healed him." Hear how Philip treated his worst enemy, the magistrate of the city. The latter, as we have seen already, had seized the holy man and dragged him along by the hair; hardly had he with drawn his sacrilegious hand when he felt the effects of the divine wrath. His hand withered, he lost the sight of one eye, he be came deaf in both ears, and his whole body was tormented by an intolerable cramp. What did the holy man do? He prayed to God, and then commanded one of his disciples to make the sign of the cross on the magistrate's body, and behold, at once all the pains were taken away, and he was restored to the full use of all his members and senses. Is not that being a true imitator of Jesus Christ, since he not only suffered nearly all the different kinds of torture endured by Our Lord, but in his sufferings displayed so heroically the virtues of Christ?
To make this resemblance still clearer, let us go to the places of execution, and cast our eyes on the crucified Saviour and on the disciple hanging also on a shameful cross, and consider how the glorious death of the one resembles that of the other in almost every circumstance. By the cross of Christ I behold Mary standing, His most holy and virginal Mother, burning with love for her divine Son, and overwhelmed with sorrow and compassion; by the cross of Philip I see his virginal sister, Mary, or, as she is called by some, Mariamne, who accompanied him in his toilsome journey to Hierapolis, stood by him in his passion, and shared his sufferings as far as her wish went, at least. I hear Christ speaking seven times on the cross; Philip preached the whole day, as long as he lived on his cross, and did not cease to give the people salutary instructions until his last breath, and to exhort them to put their trust in God. Christ on the cross prayed for His enemies; so also did Philip for those who crucified him. At the crucifixion and death of the Saviour the earth trembled and shook through compassion and horror at the murder of its Creator; at the crucifixion of Philip the earth not only shook, but even opened and swallowed down his persecutors: " The people began to sink down into the crevice, and were in imminent danger of perishing miserably; " nor, as there is reason to believe, would any one have been saved had not the people acknowledged their fault, and appealed unanimously to the holy apostle for help: " They begged of him to stretch forth his helping hand to them, and not to allow those to perish who were in danger on his account alone." Whereupon they were saved by God, who miraculously rescued them from the abyss, in which many of them had already sunk. Christ did not wish to descend from the cross, although He might have done so by His almighty power, and the Jews scornfully invited Him to come down: " If Thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross." Philip did not wish to be freed from his cross, although the people who had been so wonderfully saved by his intercession ran up to take him down, and begged of him to allow them to free him: " Philip prevented them, for he knew that he was about to go to Him whom he so longed to see." Finally, when Christ was on the point of death, He gave up the ghost with a loud cry into the hands of His heavenly Father; the dying Philip did the same: " He went to the Lord whom he loved, commending his soul into His hands." Ribadeneira adds: " Dying, he returned due thanks to God for having deigned to cause him to imitate the death of the Lord." And indeed what greater grace could he have prayed for or desired than that of such conformity with his suffering and dying Redeemer?
Nay, after the death of the apostle some circumstances occurred which are most like those that happened after the death of our Saviour. Do we not read that hardly had Our Lord breathed His last when the centurion who had to assist at the fulfilment of the sentence against Him opened his eyes to the light of faith, acknowledged Him who was hanging dead on the cross to be the Son of God, and freely confessed his belief: "Indeed this was the Son of God "? a And, as St. Luke tells us, the people, too, were touched, and acknowledged their error: " And all the multitude of them that were come together to that sight, and saw the things that were done, returned, striking their breasts." When they saw the earth quake, says St. Matthew, they were sore afraid. Metaphrastes relates a similar incident at the death of St. Philip: as soon as he gave up the ghost on the cross the eyes of the heath ens were opened, and partly through astonishment at his invincible virtue, and partly through dismay at the earthquake, they execrated their own cruelty, and having renounced idolatry, served the true God with all their hearts. " This opened the way of salvation to the infidels, who while they acknowledged the great power of Philip, praised and glorified much more the Al mighty whom he had preached to them." Last of all, let us accompany both to the tomb. The more ignominious the death of Christ, the more glorious was His sepulchre, for He was taken down from the cross by Joseph of Arimathea, a noble, and by Nicodemus, a prince among the Jews, who anointed His body with costly spices, and placed it in a new tomb hewn out of the rock, in which no one had ever been buried. Was not almost the same honor shown to Philip after the disgrace of the cross? " His sacred body," writes the author of his Life, " was placed, with hymns and sacred rites, in a consecrated and becoming place by Bartholomew and Mariamne, after they had performed in splendid style the usual funeral obsequies." So that in both cases the honor paid after death atoned in some sort for the disgrace suffered before it. Could any stronger proof be adduced to show the resemblance between Christ and Philip in their passion and death?
There, my dear brethren, you have two true disciples, perfect followers, and, in a word, as I undertook to prove, two apostles most like to Christ; the one imitating the life of Christ, the other His death, both with an exactitude that fills the world with astonishment. Truly, their fame is not to be surpassed; nor can any thing more be added to the praise due to them. The eternal Truth Himself says, in the gospel of St. Matthew: "It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord." If it is an honor and glory for a man to be like an other man who is his master, have we not reason to say that these true servants, these zealous disciples of Christ have reached the highest pinnacle of honor and glory, since they were raised with their divine Master to such a wonderful likeness to the great Monarch of heaven and earth? Yes, glorious apostles, it is enough! this alone is more than enough; this alone is the high est and greatest thing that can be said of you, that you were most like to Christ. This alone is enough to show the excellence of your virtues, your perfection and holiness; this alone is enough to enable us to form some idea of the greatness of your merits; this alone is enough to make your glory, your praise, your fame illustrious and immortal before heaven and earth.
My dear brethren, can we take any part of this fame and glory to ourselves? Are not we, too, disciples and servants of Christ? Yes, we profess to be such when we say that we are Christians. But wherein do we show the likeness to Christ, our Master? Is it not that likeness that makes the true disciple of Christ? " What does it mean to be a Christian? " asks St. Gregory of Nyssa. And he answers the question by saying that "it means having a likeness to God as far as is possible to human infirmity." The same answer is given by St. John Climacus: " The Christian," he says, "is one who tries to imitate Christ in word and work as far as is possible for a human being." That is the first and most sacred duty to which we bind ourselves in holy baptism, a duty that nothing can excuse us from fulfilling. Besides the redemption of the human race, that was the chief object that Christ had in view in His life and passion; namely, to be our model, as St. Peter says: "Leaving you an example, that you should follow His steps," and endeavor to be like unto Him. If we do not tread in His footsteps, if we do not follow His example, if our lives and actions do not harmonize with the life and actions of Christ, then to no purpose do we boast of being Christians. "To no purpose are we called Christians if we are not imitators of Christ."
And how is it with us in this particular? The whole life of Our Lord was nothing but humility, meekness, self-denial, mortification, temperance, and abstinence, love of God and man in a word, it was the most perfect justice and holiness. We have seen how excellently St. James imitated his divine Master in this respect. Now let each of us compare his own life with that of Christ, and see whether there is any resemblance. Must we not acknowledge that in nearly every point we find a difference? In stead of humility we find pride and worldly vanity; instead of meekness, anger and desire of revenge; instead of self-denial and mortification, the satisfaction of our own will, the gratification of our senses, and the constant search after bodily comforts and the delights of the flesh; instead of temperance and abstinence, glut tony and drunkenness; instead of the love of our neighbor, hatred and envy; instead of the love of God, a coldness and tepidity so great that the least occasion is enough to turn our hearts away from God to the unlawful use of creatures. In a word, instead of justice and perfection, we find nothing but sin and vice. Truly, a fine way to resemble such a perfect and divine model. Ah, too true is the complaint of Haymo: "We find Christ on the lips of all, but not in the lives of all;" for, alas! He is found there only in very few cases.
And finally, what shall I say of our conformity to the passion
and death of Christ? Philip bore nearly all the different kinds
of torments that Our Lord suffered, for His sake; what have we
endured for Christ? Philip, after the example of Christ, desired
the cross and suffering; we have a horror and dread of it; we
shun every kind of pain, mortification, and chastening of the
flesh, no matter how necessary it may be; the bare name of those
things shocks and makes us cowardly. Philip, during his martyrdom, showed an invincible patience, and although he could
have come down from the cross, preferred to die on it, to be like
his divine Master; if the smallest cross is laid on us, if the least
stroke of adversity befall us, we murmur and complain and be
wail our lot, and strain every nerve to get rid of the cross. Philip, after the example of Christ, prayed while on the cross for
those who nailed him to it, as if they had conferred on him the
greatest benefit, and actually saved them from the most imminent danger of temporal and eternal death; but we curse and vilify
those from whom we imagine we received an injury; we try to be
revenged on them, and do them all the harm we can. Is that the
way in which we ought to act as disciples of Christ, as true Christians? Must we not be ashamed to see what a perfect resemblance to Christ those holy apostles reached, while we are so utterly unlike Him? Were they perhaps obliged to be more strict
in imitating His virtues and holiness than we? Did He propose
Himself as a pattern to them alone, and not to us as well? Has
He not said to all: "Learn of Me; for I have given you an example, that as I have done to you so you do also"? Truly,
my dear brethren, these words are for us all. We are Christians
as the apostles were; we have to follow the same holy doctrine
and example of Christ; the same duties and obligations to fulfil;
and even the same way of virtue and the cross that Christ point
ed out to them must be our road to heaven also. Once for all,
according to the express words of St. Paul, we must be made
conformable to the image of the Son of God if we wish to be in
the number of those whom God has chosen for eternal glory and
happiness.
Come, then, let us at least make a resolution for the future,
and determine to live and suffer like Christ, Our Lord, after the example of the holy apostles Philip and James. If we dare not promise to imitate His perfection, humility, meekness, self-denial, charity, justice, and holiness in the same degree as the apostle St. James, we can at all events strain every nerve to follow Him at a distance, and represent in ourselves to some extent those virtues that were proper to the Saviour. If we have not the heart and courage to enter with Our Lord on the bitter way of the cross, after the example of Philip, and to remain constantly thereon till death, then let us at least bear with patience and contentment, after the example of Christ, the daily trials, crosses, and disappointments that we seem never to be without, that in some manner we may prove ourselves His true disciples. Yes, dear est Lord, this is my firm resolve, and that, too, I trust, of all here present. Do Thou grant us the help of Thy powerful grace, which we humbly beg of Thee through the intercession of these holy apostles of Thine, that we may keep our resolution, walk in Thy footsteps, and so zealously endeavor to imitate Thy example, and to be made conformable to Thee, that we may one day merit to gain this likeness, and resemble Thee in glory, as Thy holy disciple St. John has promised to all who follow Thee: " We know that when He shall appear we shall be like to Him," Amen.