Memorial of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church
Towards the end of today’s Gospel passage, Jesus makes a very important statement for us to consider. Jesus says. “No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.” The first question to look at is who the Son, Jesus, wishes to reveal the Father to. And the answer is to all of us, every human being. None are excluded. Jesus wants to reveal the Father to all of us. And Jesus does reveal the Father to us.
Of course, we might ask, how does Jesus reveal the Father to us? The answer is given most clearly in John 14: 9, when Jesus says to Philip, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” So, we are seeing the Father, God, every time we see Jesus, in who he is, what he says, and what he does. And as Jesus says in today’s gospel, “no one knows who the Son is except the Father,” so in a very real sense we do not know Jesus at all, but we see the Father revealed in him. In this, we see the humility of Jesus, as he moves himself completely out of the way, so that we can see God in human likeness.
Reflection by Fr. Aquinas Keusenkothen, OSB
Posted in Articles for Ordinary Time, Daily Reflections