TO HAVE SEEN ME IS TO HAVE SEEN THE FATH

PRAYER MOMENT               

Saturday, 17 May 2014

TO HAVE SEEN ME IS TO HAVE SEEN THE FATHER

Pause. Be present at the last supper of Jesus and his disciples.

Reading: “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? To have seen me is to have seen the Father.” (John 14:7-14)

Reflection. What would Philip have made of this answer? What do we make of it? When Jesus is alone with his closest friends at the climax of his mission, he reveals to them, insofar as they can grasp it, the relationship between himself and the Father. “I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” John’s gospel takes us far along the road to knowing God in a way the ancient Jews had never conceived of. The thunder and lightning of Mount Sinai is replaced by a gentle intimate presence accessible to human beings. In Jesus, we can know the Father through the Spirit, given to us. We rejoice and we tremble. And it gives us urgency every time we say, “Our Father … your will be done!”  

Prayer. Lord, you reveal the Father to us. Help us to relish this knowledge and do his will in all things. Amen.

David Harold-Barry SJ