Last Supper discourse

JESUS said to Thomas, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” Philip said to him, “Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” 9esus said to him, “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. 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. And whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it.”

REFLECTION WHOEVER HAS SEEN ME HAS SEEN THE FATHER. God is a mystery tremendum et fascinosum, one we dare not approach because the divine presence sears and elicits fear, and yet it is a presence that attracts and fascinates. One wants to go away but feels drawn. That is why people in the Bible thought that to see God is to die. Still, there is so much joy just to be in the divine presence. The psalmist sings, “One thing I ask of the Lord; this I seek: to dwell in the Lord’s house all the days of my life, to gaze on the Lord’s beauty, to visit his temple” (Ps 27:4).

Philip asks Jesus, “Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” Here he echoes the ardent wish of Moses who asked the Lord, “Please let me see your glory!” (Ex 33:18). Moses was granted to see only the Lord’s “back” because, as the Lord said, “You cannot see my face, for no one can see me and live” (Ex 33:20).

Jesus tells Philip, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” The one who stands before Philip is a man. But he is the Logos-Incarnate. Believers penetrate the mystery of the Incarnation and declare, “We saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son” (Jn 1:14). Do you encounter the divine presence in your day-to-day life, as while beholding nature’s beauty and force and while relating with people you meet?

SOURCE: “365 Days with the Lord 2018,” ST. PAULS Philippines, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 895-9701; Fax 895-7328; E-mail: books@stpauls.ph; Website: http://www. stpauls.ph.