THE WORD
1 Cor 15,1-8 / Jn 14,6-14
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.” 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. 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.”
IN OTHER WORDS
A middle-aged couple who lived very close to our home in Scranton, Pennsylvania, looked almost identical. The face of the wife resembled very closely that of her husband, just as his face resembled hers. It was as if they were twins born of the same parents. I did not think much about this until recently. And now I wonder if perhaps this was—and, in certain cases, is so even now—a sign from God about the power of love. When we love someone, we may not change physically, but spiritually we draw closer to that individual. If they, in turn, love us, they will also draw closer to us.
To a much greater extent, when we love God, we surely draw closer to Him, and He to us. Today’s
Gospel passage seems to say something about this phenomenon. Jesus tells 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 also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” Throughout John’s Gospel, we see how deeply Jesus loved the Father. “I have come from heaven,” Jesus said, “not to do my own will, but to do the will of the one who sent me” (Jn 6:38). Jesus then demonstrated this over and over again during his life in his preaching and in his actions. But the final proof came when he offered his life on the cross. Jesus knew that the Father willed that he offer himself by doing this in order to testify to his obedience as well as to show to the whole world his love for the Father. In other words, there was a one hundred percent identification between the Father’s will and that of Jesus. Jesus, indeed, was a living reflection, a perfect mirror-image of the Father. Jesus is the model of what we would like to become, a living image of God. How can we become more and more an image of God? Jesus tells us this in today’s Gospel. He is the way to God. Thus, by imitating Jesus in our thoughts and behavior, we grow more perfectly into God’s image—we become more God-like. This being so, we also become a way for others to draw closer to God.
- Fr. John Seland, SVD | Japan
The Word in other words 2016
An annual project of Logos Publications, The WORD in Other Words Bible Diary contains daily scripture readings and reflections written by priest, brothers, and sisters of the three congregations founded by St. Arnold Janssen (the SVD, SSpS, and SSpSAP). It hopes to serve as a daily companion to readers who continually seek the correlation of the Word of God and human experience.
