Easter Weekday
By Lorenz S. Centino, Jr.
John 14: 7 - 14
7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also; henceforth you know him and have seen him."
8 Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and we shall be satisfied."
9 Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father; how can you say, `Show us the Father'?
10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority; but the Father who dwells in me does his works.
11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me; or else believe me for the sake of the works themselves.
12 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I go to the Father.
13 Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in the Son;
14 if you ask anything in my name, I will do it.
PERSONAL REFLECTIONS:
A BLESSED SATURDAY TO ALL!!!
God as a concept or idea signifies the Supreme Being beyond definite and exact description as it is an uncreated self existent, all powerful, all knowing, omnipresent and transcendent source and foundation of all of creation and being. God is said to be the TOTALLY OTHER. As a concept, God is so distant and impersonal. However, Christianity offers to the world the way to know God. It is a knowing that is not achieved through conceptual analysis but through a PERSONAL RELATIOSHIP with God.
In Christianity, God is so personal and near. In Jesus we have a human face of God. In Jesus we have the fullness of God’s revelation of himself. In Jesus, God is not a concept but a PERSON. In knowing Jesus, one knows God. In the Gospel today, Jesus said plainly that “If you had known me, you would have known my Father also; henceforth you know him and have seen him."
Jesus reveals to us God as his FATHER. But God is not just his Father. Jesus taught us that God is OUR Father too. This image of the “fatherhood” of God only invites us to enter into a more intimate and personal relationship with God. In fact, such fatherhood of God reveals the full reality that we BELONG to him. But because of our sinfulness we turn our back away from him and walk unto the path that leads us away from the Father’s house.
Thanks to Jesus who is the EXACT IMAGE of the Father (Hebrew 1:3) that in him we have our WAY back to the Father. And so in Jesus we have the Father working for our “return” back to him. For this reason Jesus declared unto the ignorance of Philip, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority; but the Father who dwells in me does his works.” Therefore, to have an intimate and personal relationship with Jesus is to have an intimate and personal relationship with the Father. Jesus declared clearly, as he categorically stated in the Gospel yesterday, that only through him we can come to the Father. This is so because Jesus is GOD who DWELT AMONG US. Therefore, the way into an intimate and personal relationship with God is to enter into an intimate and personal relationship with Jesus.
This relationship with Jesus is the one that matters most when we speak of the coming of the “end of the world,” as Harold Camping, a preacher, believed that today, at 6 PM, is the end of the world. If we truly believe in Jesus, and have an intimate and personal relationship with him, do we also “work” the “work” that he does? This is the way to PREPARE and FACE the “end of the world.” The “work” is not easy. We might face humiliation, rejection and persecution. All we need to do is ask Jesus’ help when the road is getting rough. He assured us that “if you ask anything in my name, I will do it.”
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