Still, although God makes himself visible to us in his Son, we still fail too often to recognize him and believe in his love. St. Augustine expresses this in his Confessions: “Late have I loved you, beauty so old and so new: late have I loved you. And see, you were within and I was in the external world and sought you there, and in my unlovely state I plunged into those lovely created things which you made. You were with me, and I was not with you. The lovely things kept me far from you, though if they did not have their existence in you, they had no existence at all. You called and cried out loud and shattered my deafness. You were radiant and resplendent, you put to flight my blindness. You were fragrant, and I drew in my breath and now pant after you. I tasted you, and I feel but hunger and thirst for you. You touched me, and I am set on fire to attain the peace which is yours.”
The writer of the letter to the Hebrews begins his letter by telling us: “In times past, God spoke in partial and various ways to our ancestors through the prophets; in these last days, he spoke to us through a son, whom he made heir of all things and through whom he created the universe, who is the refulgence of his glory, the very imprint of his being, and who sustains all things by his mighty word.” (Heb 1,1f) Jesus tells his disciples in the Gospel of Matthew: “At that time Jesus said in reply. “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one know the Son except the Father, and no one know the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.”” (Mt 11,25-27) Jesus had a great desire to reveal the Father’s presence to his disciples and to us by his teaching, his healing and his laying down his life for us in love and sacrifice. Jesus is the Emmanuel, the God who is with us, but too often we are not with him. We fail to believe in him.
We can understand the frustration of Jesus when he replies to Philip: “Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? 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 speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else, believe because of the works themselves.” (Jn 14,9ff)
Our way to the Father and to “the Father’s house” is through Jesus. Jesus shows us the Father. He makes God visible for us. Jesus responds to Thomas’ question, “How can we know the way?” by proclaiming, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (Jn 14,6) If we have a desire to know and believe in the love that God has for us, we must come to the Father through Jesus. Jesus is not “a way” among many other ways, he is “the Way”, Jesus is not “a truth” among many other truths, he is “the Truth”, Jesus is not one way of life among others, he is “the Life”. We can’t come to the Father through our own way, or our own truth, or our own choices in life, we must follow the Way, the Truth and the Life that is Jesus. Only Jesus can communicate the divine life of God to us. If we want to know the Father, then we must have a relationship with the Son, Jesus. If we want Eternal Life then we must die to our old way of life and as St. Paul says, “your life is hidden with Christ in God.” (Col 3,3) We must live the Way of Life that is revealed to us in Jesus.
St. Paul tells the Colossians, “See to it that no one captivate you with an empty, seductive philosophy according to human tradition, according to the elemental powers of the world and not according to Christ. For in him dwells the whole fullness of the deity bodily, and you share in this fullness in him, who is the head of every principality and power.” (Col 2,8f) Truly our life is in Christ Jesus. As Jesus promises Philip today, “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father.” (Jn 14,12)
Jesus is no longer on this earth to reveal the Father to us, but he is within us, through the Spirit of Truth and Life, to empower us to be his witness in the world. As St. Teresa of Avila proclaimed, “Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.” We are meant to do the works of God now through Christ. As the Church, the Body of Christ, we are the visible presence of God to the world. As St. Paul instructed the Corinthians: “So let no one boast about human being, for everything belongs to you, Paul or Apollos or Kephas, or the world or life or death, or the present or the future: all belong to you, and you to Christ, and Christ to God.” (1Cor 3,21ff) Look into your heart and you will see the Father, hidden in you, in Christ, through the Holy Spirit. Believe in him and that will be enough! Amen!