Saturday of the Fourth Week of Easter

Today's Mass Readings

 

In today’s gospel, when Philip asks Jesus if he will now show them the Father, Jesus assures him that “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” This means that in everything Jesus says and does, God the Father is revealed. However, since Jesus is a human being, we are also seeing God expressed in human form.

Jesus makes a similar point in Matthew 11: 27, where he says, “No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.” If we pay attention to each part of that saying, we see the point that Jesus is making. He begins by saying that only God the Father actually knows the Son. We think we know the Son, Jesus, but Jesus says we don’t really know him. When we see and know him, we are actually seeing and knowing God the Father himself. In other words, Jesus so completely reveals God to us that we aren’t really seeing him at all. We actually see God. However, since this is God in human form, it is something that we can touch, and see, and ultimately, be like.

 

Reflection by Fr. Aquinas Keusenkothen, OSB