The Father - Wednesday, 4th Week of Lent

 If I were to ask you to tell me the Top Ten Things Jesus Proclaims in the Gospels, what would your Top Ten list be? Well, we would probably say … 

Jesus told us to love each other and our enemies; He came to bring mercy; Jesus told us to be especially mindful of the poor and needy …  We could talk about how established His Church and also instituted a ministerial priesthood. Certainly, we would mention the forgiveness of sins… And His miracles and healings and His resurrection.

 And that would be a pretty good start to our Top Ten list.

 But something that is absolutely essential to the Gospel, something that hardly anyone ever thinks about, is this:

             Jesus comes to reveal the Father.

 My friends, this is so essential. Without Jesus, we do not know the Father. And we certainly do not know that the Father is “compassionate and loving in all His ways.” Without Jesus, God could simply be a “force” like in Star Wars. And not necessarily a force for good, either. Without Jesus, we would simply know God as “the god,” as Allah – but not as Abba.

 How could we say “Our Father” without Jesus having taught us? (And yet, we still “dare to say” … our Father).

 Philip, one of the Apostles, in a moment of great honesty, asks Jesus, “Master, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

 Jesus responds: “Philip, have a been with you so long and yet you do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.”

 Do you realize what that means?!? When we look upon Jesus, we are also looking upon the Father! Jesus makes visible what has been otherwise invisible; Jesus reveals the Unseen God. And not only that, but Jesus shows us that we can have a relationship with this God – a relationship so intimate and beautiful that we can call Him the Good Father.

 And we know that the Father is good, because who is it that gives Jesus life after the Crucifixion? Who is the cause of the Resurrection? Who provides us Easter and has always had it in His mind and divine plan to do so? The Father.

 In Lent, Jesus is begging us to see the Father – through Jesus. Jesus, on the Cross, makes visible the invisible heart of the Father that longs for us, is in agony for us.

 “Do not be amazed at this,” Jesus says, “I do not seek my own will, but the will of the one who sent me.” That is the Father. “And the Father and I are one.”