I understand Philip’s words very well, “Show us the Father!”
Who among us would not love to have a
glimpse of God whom we have not seen but encounter only in faith? Even
Moses, the great man of God, was allowed to see only the “back of God,”
not His face. And so Jesus
points to Himself, saying that, in Him, God the Father has become
visible. Of course, we also have not seen Jesus face to face, but by
reading attentively and prayerfully the Gospels, we get the impression
that we know Jesus quite well.
God can be seen in Jesus. In Him, God
has become one of us. That means that God knows very well what we are
going through here on earth. God knows what it is to be tempted, for
Jesus had been tempted. And we can grasp who God is if we focus on His
Son Jesus Christ. In Jesus, we see a loving God. In Jesus, we see an
intensely caring God, loving us until He bore the wounds of love upon
His body.
So shocking and incredible it is for
many, but in Jesus we see God suffering and dying on a Cross. It is easy
to imagine a God who condemns men, or a God who, if men oppose Him,
wipes them out. No one would ever have dreamed of a God who chose the
Cross to obtain our salvation. “He who has seen me has seen the Father.”
Towards
the end of the Gospel (John 14:7-14), Jesus says that any prayer offered in His name
will be granted. Jesus did not say that all our prayers would be
granted, but that our prayers made in His name would be granted. The
test of any prayer therefore is: Can I make this prayer in the name of
Jesus? It would be impossible to pray for personal revenge or for
personal ambition in Jesus’ name and expect this prayer to be answered.
When we pray, we must ask ourselves: Can I honestly make this prayer in
the name of Jesus? And if we are able to pray also with Jesus, “Thy will
be done,” we can be sure that this prayer will always be answered.
REFLECTION
QUESTIONS: Are you disappointed when your prayers are not answered?
Could it be that you are asking for something you should not pray in
Jesus’ name?
