15 - Philip the Evangelist: Faith on the Move

What if the power you want most can only be received, never owned? We follow Philip, one of the seven deacons, as he steps into the surprising vocation that earns him the name “the Evangelist.” From crowded streets in Samaria to a desert road beside a royal chariot, his story brings the early Church into focus: humble service, clear preaching, and a fearless trust in the Holy Spirit.

We begin with a jarring contrast. Simon the Magician dazzles a city and then tries to buy spiritual authority, exposing an old hunger for control that still haunts us. Our conversation unpacks why simony is more than a medieval scandal; it’s any attempt to turn grace into a product. Peter’s rebuke is sharp because the stakes are high: prayer reshapes us to God’s will, not the other way around. That tension—gift versus grasp—frames the rest of the episode.

Then the scene shifts to one of Scripture’s most human moments. Led by the Spirit, Philip runs alongside an Ethiopian eunuch reading Isaiah and opens the text like a door. The prophecy of the Suffering Servant points straight to Christ; understanding sparks desire; desire asks for water. A roadside baptism follows, and the Spirit sends Philip onward. Along the way we explore how deacons preach with both word and life, why knowing Scripture as a single, coherent story matters, and how the community regathers even when the mission scatters. We even trace simony’s legacy through history, from relics for sale to Dante’s fierce imagery, as a warning against commodifying the sacred.

If you’re hungry for an evangelization that is learned, humble, and alive—one that treats the Holy Spirit as gift rather than leverage—this conversation is for you. Listen, share with a friend who loves Scripture, and leave a review telling us: where have you seen grace change a heart without force?

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Jordan Whiteko, Father Andrew Hamilton, Father Christopher Pujol, Vincent Reilly, Cliff Gorski, John Zylka, Sarah Hartner

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_02 (00:01):
You're listening to the Catholic Acting podcast.
We discussed the act that Jesusperformed that stunned his
disciples.
Great to be back, Jordan.

SPEAKER_00 (00:09):
You don't know us by now, you're never gonna know.

SPEAKER_02 (00:12):
I'm Jordan Waco here with Father Hamilton and Father
Poojil.
And we're both stunned.

SPEAKER_01 (00:18):
So here we are, episode five, Philippi
Evangelist.

SPEAKER_02 (00:23):
Another day.
Faith is on the move.
Another one of the deacons inthe Acts of the Apostles is
Saint Philip.
Not to be confused with theApostle Philip.

SPEAKER_00 (00:33):
So who was Philip?
Philip's one of the ones that'sordained there with Stephen,
right?
So the first seven to help inthe needs of the church.
And so we're kind of justfollowing at this point
different deacons and howthey're living out the gospel.
What's interesting here is thatin a certain way, Philip becomes
known as the evangelist.
It's not really a first orderthing that he's doing as a

(00:55):
deacon, as he's taking care ofthe poor and and the needs of
the early church, but he becomesgreat at preaching as well as
explanation of sacred scripture.
And so he gets this sense ofbeing an evangelist, a spreader
of the good news, which we seelater and some of his uh
different escapades around uhJerusalem and so forth.

SPEAKER_02 (01:14):
So is he so he's ordained a deacon at the same
time as Stephen?
Yes, he's one of that chosenseven.
Okay.
And he was scattered fromJerusalem after the death of
Stephen.
So where where why and where didhe go?
Was it because he was afraidthat it would happen to him?

SPEAKER_01 (01:30):
No, no, he wasn't afraid, but he was responding to
the needs of the church, and soas the church continued to grow,
he went to where he was called.

SPEAKER_02 (01:40):
And Philip preached, he healed the sick and he drove
out the demons in Samaria.
Right?
There was but there was oneparticular encounter with
Philip, and it was someonecalled Simon the Magician.
I'm like a foremost scholar onSimon Maugoose.

SPEAKER_00 (01:57):
Love Simon the Magician in his whole story.

SPEAKER_02 (01:59):
That's that what's what's the Maugoose?

SPEAKER_00 (02:01):
He's not mentioned much.
Maugoose is just basically adelineation that he was like a
magician.
Okay.
It's a like a wise man, but moreto having to do with like
celestial things, divinations,yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (02:14):
All the things that we're called not to do.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (02:16):
Now that Simon is different from Peter Simon,
right?

SPEAKER_01 (02:20):
Correct.

SPEAKER_02 (02:21):
Simon Peter.
Simon Peter.
Yes.

SPEAKER_01 (02:24):
The rock.
There's the rock, and there'sthe magician.

SPEAKER_00 (02:27):
So it's important that uh you brought that up,
Jordan, about Simon Peter orSimon Magus, right?
The magician.
And there's really ajuxtaposition there of those two
to show the realness of thepower bestowed by the Holy
Spirit and the glory of Godshown through that, and then
kind of this um curatedspectacle that's put on by Simon

(02:51):
the Magician.
And that really what Simon theMagician wants is to buy the
Holy Spirit.
Now the question always becomesis can we control the Holy
Spirit?
No.
No.
It blows around as it does,right?
The wind and so on.
And so it's a gift.
And really, that's what weshould think about is that all
of the things that we're givenin this life are a gift.
We don't control them, but we'restewards of them.

(03:13):
And what Simon Mogus is tryingto do there is he's trying to
dominate control and have forhis own benefit the Holy Spirit
at his beck and call.
Prayer isn't to change the mindof God and to make him give us
what we want, but rather tochange our own interior hearts
to be more aligned with themovements of the Holy Spirit, of

(03:33):
God's will in our life.
You can see how those two areinverses of each other.
And so beautifully in that storyabout Simon the the Magus, the
magician, what we see is reallythe true way of the gospel and
the way of the world, and theway in which that we're called
to live is the way of thegospel.

SPEAKER_02 (03:49):
So he was trying to buy his way to heaven, is what
you're saying.
In a way, really.
Which so many people donowadays.
They try.
They try.
They try.

SPEAKER_00 (03:59):
Yeah, it doesn't work out.
The toll's too heavy.
There's not much actually insacred scripture in the Acts of
the Apostles about Simon themagician.
What we know about him is thatin Samaria, he was working
different types of magic.
And so maybe they were it wasimitating what the early
apostles and those that weredisciples and Philip and Stephen

(04:21):
were able to do.
But in a real way, what Philipand Stephen were doing in the
other apostles was differentfrom the magic that he was
doing.
So he was doing things byappearances, but maybe not
holistically healing orsomething else and so forth.
But he had gained a lot ofpower, recognition, and fame.
So he was called the magiciannot because he knew like sleight

(04:42):
of hand.
He wasn't like pulling straightrabbits out of his hat.
Like it was other things.
We don't know exactly what thatwould mean, but think about like
in the time of Moses, wheneverthere's the sorcerers or the
different people around Pharaohthat make like uh staffs into
snakes.
Okay.
And somehow they were able to dothat, but the way in which that
like Moses was able to do itwith God's power was greater,

(05:04):
indifferent, something that theyhad not seen.
And so Simon the Magician'ssimilar to that.

SPEAKER_01 (05:09):
Because for Simon the Magician, it's all about
manipulation, manipulation ofthe natural elements to find or
show something.
So it's a different type ofmagic.

SPEAKER_02 (05:22):
So as a self-proclaimed student of the
magician, uh Father Andrew, whatwhat can you tell me?

SPEAKER_00 (05:27):
I'm not necessarily his student knowing his ways.
I don't have anything up mysleeves other than French cuffs.
But fancy.
But with the budget really didgo up in there, too.
Yeah, but uh, but what we see isthat he's very famous and he
hears Philip preach or sees someof the signs that Philip works,
and he's actually moved by it tothe point that Philip gets him

(05:50):
to be baptized.
So it seems that there's achanging of heart somewhat of
Simon there to be baptized.
Now, later on, the apostle Petercomes and there they're praying
and they're making differentthings happen and preaching.
And what Simon the Magicianwants is he wants authority.
He wants to be able to, byhaving money, pay off the
apostles for their authority andpower and have it for himself.

(06:14):
That's what then becomes in thelong tradition of the church
known as Simony, named afterSimon Magu, Simon the Magician,
and Simony is buying and sellingof church offices, which we see
is a big problem throughout thelate medieval time into the
Renaissance time.

SPEAKER_01 (06:29):
And even holy objects like relics that would
be considered simony of thebuying and the purchase of
relics, buying offices, buyingany type of church.

SPEAKER_02 (06:41):
So we still do this Simon Simoning?
No Simon?

SPEAKER_01 (06:44):
We we It's one of the greatest sins.
Militate against Simoning.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (06:47):
But you said, but so what so relics are just bestowed
upon people.
They're not like how do we getrelics if it's not they're cared
for.

SPEAKER_01 (06:56):
So wherever the relic's from, it's given to a
shrine or a specific priest tobe cared for.
But like you'll see justrecently in the news with Carlo
Acutis, um, somebody receivedone of his relics and we're
selling it on eBay for thousandsof dollars.
So that would be the primeexample of Simony.

SPEAKER_02 (07:16):
So this one mention in story of Simon the Magician
is included to kind of steer youaway from that path, is what
you're saying.

SPEAKER_00 (07:24):
It it speaks to us of continual conversion, right?
That the charisma as a messageisn't just static, that this is
what God did for me then, it'swhat God has has done for me in
the past and continues to do forme as a disciple, as I follow
him.
Because that's what we stronglybelieve as Catholics, that we
are only saved certainly byGod's grace, but we have to

(07:45):
cooperate with that grace.
We have to apply the merits ofChrist's death, his life, death,
and resurrection to our ownlives.
And we only do that by sayingyes to God.
We have free will, and we haveto align it with the will of
God.
Thy will be done, not my will bedone.

SPEAKER_01 (08:00):
And we see this, especially when we look at
Philip the Evangelist, as a as aprime example, moving from
Jerusalem into these other areasof need in the church.
So where are those other areas?
Where does he go from here?
Another fun story.
He encounters the Ethiopianeunuch.

SPEAKER_02 (08:19):
And so the Ethiopian church traces its origins to
Saint Philip.
What is the story of Philip andthe Ethiopian servant that leads
to this development?

SPEAKER_01 (08:28):
What's interesting is that Moses actually, as
working in Pharaoh's court priorto his conversion, actually
conquered Ethiopia and broughtEthiopia to the Pharaoh and
said, Behold Ethiopia and allits splendor and all its riches.

(08:49):
And now we see Ethiopia again,except Christ going there and
winning their hearts for him.

SPEAKER_00 (08:56):
And so it's a different kind of conquering.
Yes.
We should start with what is aeunuch, just so that we're clear
on that.
Eunuchs don't try this at home.
Do not try this at home, yes.

SPEAKER_02 (09:06):
Well, they have those in Game of Thrones and
stuff, so people probably arefamiliar, but you can mention it
if you're not.

SPEAKER_00 (09:10):
Yeah, it's good to just clarify terms.
Eunuchs were those that werelike castrated males that were
around usually royal courts.
They posed no threat in aphysical sense towards the queen
or the courtiers and so on.
And so that's what a eunuch was.

SPEAKER_02 (09:26):
Were they usually like uh like the armies, you
know what I mean?
Like that's how it was in Gameof Thrones, is what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_01 (09:34):
I'm not familiar with that's a bishop question.

SPEAKER_00 (09:40):
Continue then.
But nonetheless, so there is aEthiopian eunuch.
He's part of the Ethiopian royalcourt to the queen, and he is
traveling, and led by theSpirit, Philip the evangelist,
goes down, and there he's toldto catch up to this chariot that
has the Ethiopian eunuch, and hecomes upon him and he's reading
the prophecies of Isaiah,talking about the one that was

(10:01):
the lamb led before the shearswho kept quiet, that was
slaughtered in that sense.
And the Ethiopian eunuch asksPhilip, What does this mean?
What's this all about?
And because Philip has knowledgeof Jesus Christ and how it
connects with the ancientprophecies of Judaism, there
he's able to explain it.
And from there, then theEthiopian eunuch accepts Christ

(10:24):
as the fulfillment as theMessiah, and they come upon
water over to the side of theroad, and there's water there.
And essentially the Ethiopianeunuch asks, why not be baptized
now?
Like, why not just go right intobaptism?
And so they stop the chariot,the cart, and there then the
Ethiopian eunuch is baptized.
And as he rises from the water,then it says, and I love this,

(10:46):
it was actually right at mydiaconal ordination.
I chose this, that Philip issnatched up and that he's taken
by the Spirit somewhere else.
A very clear sign of how theHoly Spirit is working in the
early church.
Was he taken up in a whirlwind,like maybe was some of the
prophets of the Old Testament?
We don't know, but I don't thinkthat he just hid behind a tree,
and then you know nobody knewthat he was.
Simon the magician came back andhe made him vanish.

(11:09):
Smoke bombs, run away.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (11:12):
Um, okay, so Philip going from there, Philip also
preached in Caesarea, where Pauland Luke stay with him.
And here Philip is referred toas the evangelist because of his
great preaching ability as adeacon.
How do how do deacons preach theword of God?
How can we be servants of thatword?

SPEAKER_01 (11:31):
Well, I think he preached a lot.
First of all, I think it's it'sso great to see that the
community, even when theyseparate to go preach in
different areas, they always endup back together, right?
Because as we've been talkingabout, that communal aspect is
so important.
But deacons and specificallyPhilip, he really preaches the

(11:52):
gospel with his life and with uhthe way he he's able to capture
hearts.
I mean, to have somebody likethat Ethiopian eunuch, you
encounter them, and then withina very brief amount of time,
they ask for baptism.
He must have been extremelycompelling in his telling of the

(12:13):
gospel.

SPEAKER_00 (12:14):
I mean, what's very interesting with both, as we
have Stephen and Philip, theyclearly know scripture and the
prophecies of Judaism, right?
Think about what Stephen did ishe was building on everything
before the Sanhedrin.
That's like trying to give likea dissertation in front of a
board of a bunch of doctors thatare experts on the topic that
you're speaking about.
That's tough.
And then you have later Philipexplaining to the eunuch about

(12:37):
what the prophecy of Isaiah is.
And so his great knowledge andconnecting all those things
together really opens people'seyes.
Even in my own preaching, one ofthe things that I try to do is
make sense of the old in lightof the new.
It's beautiful to be able to seethe whole entire story of sacred
scripture as everything fallinginto place because it becomes
intelligent design.
It's not that these are juststories that were written down

(12:58):
in any which way, but there's abeautiful continuity that flows
through all of it where you cansee Christ prefigured and then
brought to the fullness ofrealization in the New
Testament.
And so they were able to connectthat whole story and make it
known to the people of God.
And I think that's why Philipwas so um well renowned as an
evangelist and as a preacher ofthe good news.

SPEAKER_02 (13:19):
So how can we be servants of the word to be
evangelizers and share it withothers?

SPEAKER_01 (13:24):
Well, I think to be an evangelizer, we have to
recognize that it's it's nothingstatic.
It's always something that'sliving and moving because we
believe that that holy scriptureis inspired by God and divine
inspiration, and that wordinspire comes from the Latin
inspirode, but to to breathe,which is a constant moving,

(13:47):
right?
If we stop breathing, we die.
And just like scripture, we'rebreathing with scripture, we're
learning it, and we're breathingit out in practice, and so faith
is moving because it's alwaysleading us to Christ, but it
leads us to each other, and itleads people then to Christ and

(14:07):
then to the community.

SPEAKER_02 (14:09):
Thanks for listening to the Catholic Accent podcast.

SPEAKER_00 (14:12):
Don't forget to follow, like, and subscribe to
our show.
Dante Ligieri and his famous TheDivine Comedy, right?
Everybody knows the inferno.
By the way, everybody, readPeradisia.
We talked about this in one ofthe previous episodes.
As well as uh Purgatorio, youneed all three levels.
Then the West Dante in Hell, heplaces those that buy and sell

(14:35):
office in the church upside downin baptismal fonts with their
legs kicking in the air.
Why he does that is becausethere is a legend about Simon
Magoose outside of sacredscripture that he later went and
he decided to try to go back tohis old ways of living.
Then he was doing magic again,and he was jumping off a
parapet, and there Peter wasseeing all of this, and people

(14:57):
were starting to follow SimonMagoose because of these signs
or wonders.
And so Peter prays, and fromthere, then Simon Magoose comes
out of the air and he hits intothe ground and his head's stuck
in the ground and his feet arekicking in the air.
And so it's a sign of his falland a sign of the sin of Simony
trying to buy and sell officenamed after Simon the Maugoose.