Evangelizing with St. Philip

Remember when Jesus started to get a little cranky from being constantly surrounded by his crowds of devoted followers?  He loved the idea that folks were keen on his message, but didn’t love so much the hordes that kept dogging his heels (they always needed feeding, don’t you know…).  Well, Jesus was no fool; he had a plan!  It seemed reasonable that if he trained a few of the more charismatic and devoted disciples to become teachers themselves, he could really get his message out farther and wider.  Fast forward to the Acts of the Apostles.  As happened with Jesus, the Apostles had a flock of followers of their own who with their increasing numbers grew more disgruntled and disagreements occurred.  The Greeks in the group complained of being short-shrifted by the Jews, and the Jews never really overcame their bias against the Greeks as unclean gentiles.  So like Jesus before them, the Apostles found themselves attending more to settling squabbles and administrative detail than to the Word of God which was in imminent danger of neglect. They determined the time was right for them to choose their own disciples.  They chose seven “men full of Spirit and wisdom.”  These seven were supposed to tend to the mundane matters so that the Apostles could re-concentrate their efforts on preaching the Word.  Those seven extended a bit beyond that intention, however, and it is from them that we meet Philip the Evangelist, whose feast day is October 11.

In chapter six of Acts, Philip is described as one of the scattered who went through the country preaching the Word and performing miracles.  But his great story is that of converting and baptizing an Ethiopian.  This man was, unbeknownst to Philip, a high muckety-muck in the Ethiopian queen’s court and was in fact the treasurer.  After struggling with the meaning of certain passages from Isaiah, the poor befuddled fellow turned to Philip and confessed that he needed guidance.  And Philip spoke with such awe and enthusiasm about Jesus that the Ethiopian begged to be baptized right then.  This Ethiopian continued on his way home and through him the Ethiopian Orthodox Church was born.

St. Peter rebuking Simon Magus (Avanzino Nucci, 1620)

Dante's 8th circle of hell, reserved for the fraudulent, like simoners and sorcerers

Philip had been comfortably well-off.  He owned a home in Caesarea large enough to accommodate Paul and his entourage while Paul was evangelizing in the area.  Philip also had four daughters who had the gift of prophesy.  So Philip would have had a passing familiarity with the aura and atmosphere of mysticism that surrounds that kind of gift.  This familiarity may have had a blinding influence, however indirect, on Philip’s relationship with Simon Magus of Samaria.  Simon Magus was a sorcerer of great renown and popularity. But he was cunning and sly as well.  He figured out that this Christianity gig could be a real boost for his magic business.  He convinced Philip of his sincerity in converting to Jesus’ way and was baptized.  Simon followed Philip everywhere, capitalizing (quite literally) on the miracles Philip performed.  The Apostle Peter heard about Philip’s progress in Samaria and came to offer support.  When Simon met Peter, he bribed him with money to give him the power of the Holy Spirit.  Of course, Peter was appalled and cast him out, cursing Simon with eternal damnation.  A millennium later, Martin Luther refers to the sinful practice of the Church to sell indulgences, relics and favors as “simony” and includes the practice among his many reforms.  Dante Alighieri relegates practices of simony and sorcery to the third and fourth “malebolges” (evil pockets) in the eighth circle of hell in The Divine Comedy: Inferno. Simon, it is purported by early Church bishop Irenaeus, was the founder of a sect of gnostic heretics called the Simonians.  This sect was active for some two hundred years and concerned itself with the power of fire as the source of all wisdom and reason.

In analyzing the life and events surrounding Philip the Evangelist, we came begin to perceive connections in our own experiences with the modern Church.  Where are we in the spiral of growth and schism and newfound energy for evangelism?  Are we the bickering mob?  Are we like Philip—the hope of the Apostles, yet susceptible to misrepresentation?  Like Philip, we can but let the Spirit of God work in us and through us.  Take a moment or two tomorrow (on the Feast of St. Philip the Evangelist) to offer this prayer: 
Holy God, no one is excluded from your love; and your truth transforms the minds of all who seek you: As your servant Philip was led to embrace the fullness of your salvation and to bring the stranger to Baptism, so give us all the grace to be heralds of the Gospel, proclaiming your love in Jesus Christ our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.