Message of Abbot Paul - Tuesday 3rd May

Abbot Paul • May 2, 2022

Message from Fr Paul for Tuesday, 3rd May 2022

Today the Church now keeps the feast of the Apostles Philip and James, displaced from 1st May when the memorial of St Joseph the Worker was introduced into the Calendar by Pope Pius XII in 1955. Then in 1968, the feast of the Apostles took the place of the supressed feast of the Finding of the Holy Cross, a feast still kept in many countries of the world, including Peru. The two apostles were kept together on 1st May as that was the date of the dedication of the basilica of the Twelve Apostles in Rome. The James commemorated is James the Less and not James the Great, the cousin or brother of the Lord, whose feast is on 25th July and is associated with Compostela and the Camino. The Gospel passage chosen for today comes from John, (Jn 14: 6-14), and is part of the Last Supper discourse, where at one point Jesus answers a question put to him by Philip.

Jesus, replying first to Thomas, says:

“I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.

No one can come to the Father except through me.

If you know me, you know my Father too.

From this moment you know him and have seen him.”

These words are so well known to us, they need no commentary. They are the highest expression of Christology and bring the teaching of the Incarnation right down to earth, for to have seen Jesus is to have seen the Father and to know Jesus is to know the Father. At that stage the Apostles have difficulty still in following what Jesus is telling them. It is hardly surprising that one of them says the obvious, and that one is Philip, who said, “Lord, let us see the Father and then we shall be satisfied.” In other words, “Jesus, you see and know the Father, now we want to see and know him like you do.” Jesus replies, reiterating what he has just said. “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me?” It would appear that Philip and his companions still have a lot to learn.

So Jesus explains:

“To have seen me is to have seen the Father,

so how can you say, “Let us see the Father”?

Do you not believe

that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?

The words I say to you I do not speak as from myself:

it is the Father, living in me, who is doing this work.

You must believe me when I say

that I am in the Father and the Father is in me;

believe it on the evidence of this work, if for no other reason.”

Yet again Jesus insists that to have seen him is to have seen the Father, that he is in the Father as the Father is in him, that he and the Father are one. That, too, he states twice, that he is in the Father as the Father is in him, so that the words he speaks and the works he does come from the Father. If Philip finds that difficult to believe and understand, then he should look at the works that Jesus does, the signs he has seen Jesus accomplish. Jesus goes even further and the results or effects of his words we read about in the Acts of the Apostles.

“Whoever believes in me

will perform the same works as I do myself,

he will perform even greater works,

because I am going to the Father.

Whatever you ask for in my name I will do,

so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

If you ask for anything in my name,

I will do it.”

Those who believe in Jesus, that he and the Father are one, will do even greater things, if they do them in his name. That’s a powerful promise and one Jesus continues to fulfil today. It was good that Philip made that comment to Jesus, as his answer was one that we needed to hear.

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