Thursday of the Fifth Week of Lent
We would all probably acknowledge that we have limited insight into others, and even into ourselves. We certainly have limited insight into God. We would be rightly wary of someone who claimed to know God well. We are suspicious of those who seem too sure of themselves when it comes to God. Yet, in today’s gospel reading, Jesus states very clearly that he knows God. "I know him, and if I were to say, 'I do not know him,' I should be a liar… But I do know him, and I faithfully keep his word." The opening fourteen verses of this gospel of John is often called the Prologue to the gospel, and the last verse states, "No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known." Because Jesus has the most intimate relationship with God, close to the Father’s heart, he knows God in the fullest possible way, and, therefore, he can make God known to us. That is why we keep turning to Jesus, because we recognize that he alone can show us the face of God. In the setting of the last supper in this gospel of John, Philip turns to Jesus and asks him, "Show us the Father, and we shall be satisfied," and Jesus replies, "To have seen me is to have seen the Father." We all have that longing of Philip to see God, to know God, not just with our mind but with our heart. Like Philip we sense that we will never be fully satisfied until we see God, know God, in this deep sense. It was Saint Augustine who said that our hearts are restless until they rest in God. It is only Jesus who can satisfy this restless longing we all have to see and know God. We need to keep turning towards Jesus who comes to us in his Word, in the Sacraments, in the community of believers, so that we can begin to experience in the here and now something of that rest, that resting in God, that is our ultimate destiny.
Fr. Mark Paul Amatrucola, c.o.ChaplainSt. Francis College
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| "Peaceful Sleep" | Alonzo Adams (1961-) |
Psalm 4:8
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