Word to the Wise
Tuesday, May 3, 2022 - May 3 - Sts. Philip and James, Apostles
[1 Cor 15:1-8 and John 14:6-14]"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." Jesus 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." [John]
The gospel scripture today moves away from the "Bread of LIfe" discourse for a day, but not away from the Gospel According to John. The words above are taken from the "Last Supper Discourse." The first line should be a familiar one to us: "I am the way and the truth and the life." Unfortunately, these words have been used by overzealous Christians to exclude any non-Christian from God's mercy and salvation. That is not the intent as the words following the line would indicate. Jesus is not some kind of "agent" that we have to deal with in order to get to the "principal." He and the "principal" are one and the same. Trinitarian distinctions were not in play at the time this gospel was written. Christian faith took awhile to understand this and arrived at the truth of the Holy Trinity. It is as if Jesus' words to Philip would indicate hundreds of years of reflection: "Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me?"
It is a fact of life that no matter how long we know someone, we never know them completely. Surprises are always possible and another person may know that someone from a completely different perspective and have another part of the "truth" about them. We do not know, at least on earth, everything there is to know about God. The opening lines of the "Prologue" to the Gospel According to John indicate that we are confronting eternal realities: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God." The human mission of God, in the person of Jesus, is a crucial but brief moment in the history of God's unfolding revelation. The essentials are to be found in the scriptures and the Tradition and the Creeds handed down by the apostles and early Church preachers, but God is not to be bound by the past and is continually speaking to the world in the Body of Christ, the church, and in creation. We can hardly blame Philip for asking his question! AMEN