Jesus seems hurt by Philip's seemingly casual request: "Lord, show us the Father and it is enough for us.". There are various levels of ignorance in what Philip asks: as if he is asking for something small, as if the Father is something that can simply be shown, as if the thirst for divinity can be quenched so easily... But Jesus focuses on one aspect of this ignorance, and tells him: "I have been with you so long, and do you not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father; how do you say, 'Show us the Father'?"
And he insists, underlining the great reality that Philip, and undoubtedly the other apostles as well, had not grasped: Jesus as the revealer of the Father, because he is one with the Father: "Believe me: I am in the Father and the Father in me."
As Jesus approaches his paschal mystery, the ultimate expression of God's saving plan for humanity, through which we will be brought to share in the life of the Trinity, he feels the need to speak to us more about this life, a life he came to earth to give us the power to share. He himself is the way to this life, as he tells Thomas: "I am the way, the truth and the life." Through Jesus we have access to the Trinitarian life and his very return to the Father is to prepare our "habitation" in the Father's house: "In my Father's house there are many dwelling places.... When I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to myself, so that where I am you may be also.". Heaven, and the Christian life that is its foretaste, is to be at home in God's own life, in the family life of the Trinity. Jesus goes to the Father to take us with him.
Today's other readings seem unrelated to the Gospel, but they have a subtle link to it. Each, in its own way, addresses the priestly life of the Church. In the first reading, the Apostles institute the diaconate for the work of service, so that they themselves can focus on the more directly priestly tasks of prayer and preaching. The psalm encourages us to praise God with joy and song. In the second reading, St. Peter says to the early Christians who form "a royal priesthood". Each text tells us about the "priestly soul". that every Christian has received in Baptism. We must live a priestly existence, turning everything we do into an act of adoration and sacrifice to God. But this priestly existence, as we see in Jesus, becomes "active" the more we become aware of our own divine filiation. In any relationship, the more one loves, the more one is willing to offer oneself to the other, and there is no greater love than the paternal-filial love between God the Father and Jesus, his Son. The more we love God as Father and long to take everyone to heaven, the more willing we will be to become priests of our own sacrifice to Him.
Homily on the readings of Sunday, Easter Sunday V (A)
The priest Luis Herrera Campo offers its nanomiliaA short one-minute reflection for these Sunday readings.
