By Fr. George Dorbarakis
The hymns of our Church naturally emphasize, since he is an Apostle of Christ, and indeed one of the Twelve, “the foundations of the Church,” his election by the Lord – “Christ included him in the choir of disciples” – his participation in the flame of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, so that “filled with this flame, he might give life with the fervor of faith to those who had been frozen by atheism,” his presence in the world in general as “divine salt, in order to dry up the terrible rot of humanity worn out by passions,” and of course his glorified position in the Kingdom of God, in which “he sees Christ Himself not enigmatically, but clearly face to face.”
However, the Church Hymnographer, Saint Theophanes, in addition to the many praises he writes for the Holy Apostle, points out two points that, we think, deserve special attention. First, the fact that the Lord chooses Philip as His disciple – let us not forget that the Lord had the absolute initiative in choosing the disciples: “You did not choose Me, but I chose you,” He said – means that He calls someone whose virtues he has foreseen, as an omniscient God, and therefore has assessed his capabilities for undertaking such a literally titanic task, namely, His witness to the world as the incarnate God. “Philip, Christ has included you in the choir of disciples, knowing your virtue beforehand, you who are blessed by God.” And this is an important element, which reveals that Christ calls a person to undertake a ministry, provided that he has the prerequisites for this ministry. That is, it is not enough for a person to have a good disposition alone to serve the Church, but it is also required that he have the physical prerequisites for such a thing. This is a great lesson for us, who often assign ministries to good people, but who are unable to respond due to the weakness of their physical assets.
Where the Holy Hymnographer insists excessively, one might say, presupposing knowledge of the incident from the Gospel, according to which Philip once expressed his complaint to the Lord: “Lord, you constantly speak to us about God the Father. Show us the Father, and it is enough for us,” is precisely the interpretation of this word of Philip. He believes that this complaint gave the Lord the occasion to speak to His disciples about His equality with God the Father. “You sought the Father of lights in the Son, and you found Him; for in the light is the light; and He is the exact seal, revealing the archetype.” In other words, God the Father is found in the light, Christ, and this is because Christ is the exact seal, revealing the archetype, God the Father. Saint Philip, therefore, with his question became the occasion for us to have one of the most direct revelations of the Lord about His Divinity.
The same incident, however, namely Philip's question, is seen by Saint Theophanes from another perspective: as revealing the Apostle's own disposition. Saint Philip, that is, according to the Hymnographer, in seeking God the Father through Christ, shows his divine desire for God, his desire to go beyond praxis to theoria, becoming a second Moses. Just as Moses thirsted to see God, and after ascending Mount Sinai, invited by Him to receive the tablets of the Law, he saw "the back of God," that is, His energy and glory, in the same way, according to the Hymnographer, Philip also desired to see God, Whose image he saw in a familiar way in the face of Christ. For the Son constitutes the concise knowledge and manifestation of the Father. "Always engaged in the divine ascent, like Moses before you, you longed to behold God; and you indeed saw clearly His image, having received His likeness, for the Son is the concise knowledge and manifestation of the Father."
From this point of view, the divine Hymnographer understands Saint Philip also as a model of the theoretic Christian, theoretic not in the sense of one occupied with theories of the mind, but in the sense of one who beholds God, one who participates in His light and glory. And a prerequisite for this is the praxis of virtues. Saint Philip, being in a constant ascent due to the practice of virtues, or of praxis, wanted to ascend to theology as well. The patristic saying “praxis is the stepping stone of theoria,” means that the practice, or the exercise of virtues is the stepping stone for the ascent to theoria, to the vision of God, and the Hymnographer applies it in an absolute way to the Holy Apostle. It is a dimension that escapes the attention of most Christians. Saint Philip is, together with Saint John the Theologian, together with the Apostle Paul, the basis of the later Neptic Fathers of the Church, who recorded their theoptic experiences, moving in a more internal space, deeper in the heart of man. “Praxis is the stepping stone of sincere theoria, theoria is the end of God-loving praxis, blessed one, you have been found worthy by Christ that He show you the inexpressible glory of God the Father."
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
