May 14, 2017

Jn 14: 1-12

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.

And you know the way to the place where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves.

Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.

New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.

Show Us The Father

Which of the moments in Jesus’ life would you say best shows the Father to us: calming the storm? healing the lepers? raising the dead? feeding the five thousand? the transfiguration?  the crucifixion?

For me it is the crucifixion. Many writers down thru the ages, embarrassed by the passion, speak of Jesus laying aside or hiding his divinity. I think it is just the opposite. John’s gospel tells us that Jesus, in choosing to accept crucifixion, was glorifying the Father and the Father was glorifying him. On the cross Jesus was being God. On the cross the Father was revealing the depths of his love. As the Incarnate Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, Jesus on the cross was not pleading with the Father. The Father is pleading with us: Can you now believe that I love you? Can you now believe that I truly forgive you?

—Fr. Jonathan Haschka, S.J. writes from the St. Camillus Jesuit Community in Wauwatosa WI, where he serves as Assistant to the Superior.

Prayer

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and always will be. Amen.

—a traditional prayer to the Holy Trinity