Today’s primary saint is Philip the Deacon. He’s biblical (Acts 8), he did everything right, he’s a saint. Fine. But I want to use this space to discuss another character found in Acts 8 that Butler himself writes at length about in his entry on Philip (perhaps finding Philip no more interesting than I do)–Simon Magus, aka Simon the Magician.
In brief, Simon Magus was in competition with the first Apostles for whipping up followers. He found that these Apostles seemed to be onto a good thing, and he decided he wanted a piece of the action. So he went up at the altar call, gave his life over to Jesus as his Lord and Savior, said the Prayer, and was welcomed into the flock. Thereupon, he had access to the Big Two–Peter and John. When he saw Peter and John doing all those things that televangelists do, what with laying on of hands and casting out demons, etc., Simon Magus pulled them aside and asked, “How much money do you guys want to show me your secrets and tricks? I think I could really do something big with this shaking and quaking and telling these rubes about ‘holy ghosts’–I’m an old hand at this stuff!”
Well, this being biblical and all, Simon Magus was told by Peter in no uncertain terms that Christianity wasn’t a money game, that the power of the Holy Spirit wasn’t for sale, that his (Simon Magus’s) heart wasn’t right, and that if he didn’t change his tune, he’d end up in eternal perdition. And from this story, we have the English word “simony” which means
- the making of profit out of sacred things.
- the sin of buying or selling ecclesiastical preferments, benefices, etc.
So, at least once upon a time, “the making of profit out of sacred things” was considered something very very bad…sinful, even. Damnation-worthy. An affront to the very spirit of (primitive) Christianity. (Rest assured, our St. Philip never engaged in simony.) The secondary meaning–bribing church officials to get special goodies–comes about later in church history but is (was?) likewise ostensibly a contemptible enterprise.
Simony is rampant in Christendom, but rather than focusing on Simon Magus, Joel Osteen, and the other Jesse Duplantis-types, or even on the special dispensations granted to and by the likes of the late Cardinal Law, I believe that it is much less fruitful to focus on the most excessive examples; these can be written off as anomalies. Instead, it is more important to press the deceptively simple question, “What happens when sacred things become a source of profit?” What do monetary considerations do to faith?
Again, as with the post of June 5, 2018, on St. Dorotheus, I am but lifting a corner here of a topic that is vast and vastly worth exploring. Your thoughts are always welcome. (There’s a comment section accompanying each blog post!)