God, the Father
Today’s readings are an exhortation to believe in God. St. Paul lays out the evidence of why all must believe: because of Christ’s rising from the dead, by studying Scripture, and that the risen Christ was in the physical presence of many. John’s Gospel continues this message as Christ tells Philip and his apostles that belief in God is as close to them as Christ’s own physical presence. “The Father who dwells in me is doing his work.” (Jn.14:10)
Lord Jesus, Son of God
For those of us who do believe, we can often be frustrated with those who do not believe or appear to be lukewarm in accepting that Christ is the Son of God. I am not bright enough to use St. Thomas Aquinas’ 5 Proofs on the Existence of God to convince unbelievers. For me, C.S. Lewis’ statement on Jesus in Mere Christianity is brilliant yet clear enough for anyone to understand:
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him [that is, Christ]: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic–on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg–or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse…. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
Help our Unbelief
We must never reduce Christ to a historical figure in a specific time period; past, present, and future cannot contain God. Still, there are times when many of us have our doubts; our “Philip moments” when we ask the Father to be made visible or question whether our belief was in vain. At those times we must turn to prayer and ask God for the grace to understand what Jesus proclaimed to Thomas and the other apostles, “I am the way, 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.” (Jn.14:6-7)
