“Do you believe we can do this?” Dad says to his son.
“Yes, I believe we can do this!” Pepper responds.
These are two lines taken from “Little Boy”: a story about the courage of a seven-year-old boy and how his inner faith transforms the world.
Keeping this story in mind, we might also turn to today’s Gospel to dig deeper in this discovery of faith. The Apostle, Phillip, petitions Our Lord with a special request. “Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” (NABRE, Jn 14:8). It is a bold claim. It is probably one that any of us might have made; but it falls short of the mark. Let us look at Jesus’ response and we will see why. “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’?” (Jn 14:9). Jesus is the Face of the Father. Therefore, Phillip’s request denies Jesus’ very mission and purpose with them: to show them the Father. It is a punch in the face, but Jesus lets it glance off, understanding that Phillip has yet to look at Him with the eyes of faith.
Faith
But what is faith? And borrowing from the words of another character in the Gospel, “What must I do?” (Luke 10:25). Let’s continue reading Our Lord’s words. “Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else, believe because of the works themselves.” In strict terms, “faith is a free assent to the whole truth that God has revealed” (CCC, 150). Put simply, it is believing in the Son of God and all that He has given us which includes His words. It’s that simple. Believe what He says and believe because He said it; and if that’s insufficient,. k to His actions. Jesus got upset with His Apostle because Phillip obviously had not believed in what Jesus had either said or shown him for the past three years. Otherwise, Phillip would have seen the Father. Jesus proceeds to show the fruit of faith.
“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.” Imagine that. Jesus, the Son of God, says those who have faith will do GREATER works than He did! It is dumbfounding, but true. “Everything is possible to one who has faith” (Mk 9:23).
They Came to Believe
Look at the Mass readings throughout this Easter season. What do we see? We discover fishermen, retired tax collectors, and former persecutors of the Church now performing countless miracles and saving thousands of souls. Are they the same people? Indeed. What changed? They came to believe. What if we had such faith? What if we truly believed in what Jesus had to say? Look at how God could work wonders in our lives. We would move mountains.
There is a point in the Gospel when Jesus performs only a few miracles. The Gospel explicitly says He did not perform many miracles in a town because of the people’s lack of faith (Matt 13:58). Do we want to be like them? How sad it would be if we heard God say to us at our particular judgment, “I wanted to work miracles in your life, but I couldn’t because you wouldn’t believe.”
It is not easy. It takes courage to believe. Christ’s sayings are hard . . . Many of His disciples left Him because they were so hard! (Jn 6:60,66). It takes courage to believe that the tiny Host which dissolves on our tongue and makes Its way down our throat is the Son of God – our very Creator. But each of us has a will – a free will – and we can choose to enter this mystery and every other one in our lives if we so desire. Jesus did not forget about Phillip’s request and neither forgets about ours. “If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it” (Jn 14:14). All He asks is that we do it with Him.
“Do you believe we can do this?” Jesus says to you and me.
May we respond, “Yes, I believe we can do this!”
O Lady, who never gave up hope, but believed, pray for us.
