Father And Son Are One

𝐌𝐀𝐘 𝟐, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔: 𝐒𝐓. 𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐀𝐒𝐈𝐔𝐒, 𝐁𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐩 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐃𝐨𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐡

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝟏: 𝐀𝐜 𝟏𝟑:𝟒𝟒-𝟓𝟐

𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐏𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐦: 𝐏𝐬𝐚 𝟗𝟖:𝟏-𝟒 “𝐀𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐡 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐆𝐨𝐝.”

𝐆𝐎𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐋: 𝐉𝐍 𝟏𝟒:𝟕-𝟏𝟒

𝐊𝐞𝐲 𝐕𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐞: “𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐈 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐝𝐨 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐬𝐤 𝐢𝐧 𝐦𝐲 𝐍𝐚𝐦𝐞.” (𝐯.𝟏𝟑) 

I’m pretty sure that many of you if not all of you have seen, known and have become acquainted with either your friends and or your relatives who are identical twins or a set of two people who are a spitting image of the other.

Such similarities in the family are not only between twin brothers or sisters, but even among children who are a spitting image of their parents. And many times, you cannot tell or distinguish one from the other.

I experienced being in a similar situation some years back in one of the teaching sessions I facilitated at the Malolos, Bulacan chapter of our community. There were about 50 participants, and no one told me that among the participants were two sisters who were strikingly similar to each other. The funny thing was the twins were seated separately, and you get the feeling that your eyes are playing tricks on you.

This is probably what Jesus was trying to say to his disciples since no one has ever seen the Father. Even Moses never saw the Father since his head was bowed all throughout the time when the Father spoke to him at Mount Sinai.

And in today’s Gospel passage, Jesus tells his disciples that He is in the Father and the Father is in Him. This simply means that we can see the Father by just looking at Jesus because the Father and the Son are one.

We also see in the Gospel a reflection of people from all walks of life having one goal in common and that is to enjoy life to its fullness, and many would go to great lengths to reach this goal. And a joyful life is almost always equated with how much a person possesses and has achieved in life.

            But there comes a time when enough is not just enough and either we start looking for more or we end up depressed as our riches can no longer satisfy our inner desire for peace, security and joy that has no end and we begin to realize that all our possessions, titles, achievements are temporal and will not merit our salvation.

            Then and only then will we realize that God has been present in our lives all along, but we not only took him for granted but we simply ignore him as we gave way to our pursuit of our human desires.

            There may have been instances when we did feel the presence of God in the encounter programs and or Life in the Spirit Seminars that we were invited to. We went through some of the formation programs of the Church and or Community that we joined and yet there was duality in the kind of life we lived. One was with God and the other was with the world.

            This is because we at times have created our own image of God in our minds that to some God is an invisible God and people sometimes find it hard to relate much more establish a relationship with someone they can’t see.

            This was the predicament of the Jews and even of the disciples of Jesus because to them God was invisible and that no one had ever seen God and this was not something the Jews made up because God Himself told Moses: “𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐬𝐞𝐞 𝐦𝐲 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐦𝐲 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐛𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐧.” (𝐄𝐱𝐨 𝟑𝟑:𝟐𝟑)        

But Jesus stood before his disciples and boldly proclaimed: “𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐤𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐦𝐞, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐦𝐲 𝐅𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐬 𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐥. 𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐨𝐧, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐨 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐡𝐢𝐦 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐡𝐢𝐦.” (𝐯.𝟕) Simply put; to see Jesus is to see what God is like and God was such a good God that in order for men to appreciate his person, He sent His only begotten Son to sanctify human birth and to sanctify the humble home of Joseph and Mary.

What God did was He showed how the work of the ordinary man – carpenter and fishermen – was clothed with glory because they have been touched by the hand of God through Jesus.

            What this Gospel passage represents was that Jesus was the Messiah who had been prophesied by the prophet Isaiah. He allowed Himself to be baptized even if he had no need for one just so He could identify Himself with humanity.

He preached and taught, healed the sick, drove demons out of those possessed by evil and towards the end of His earthly ministry He declared: “𝐈 𝐚𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐚𝐲, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞. 𝐍𝐨 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐱𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭 𝐛𝐲 𝐦𝐞.” (𝐉𝐧 𝟏𝟒:𝟔)        

This indeed was not just a bold proclamation because no other prophet or teacher who came before Jesus ever claimed the character that the Jews have reserved only for God.

As the way, Jesus is our path to the Father. As the truth, he is the reality of all of God’s promises. And as the life, he joins his divine life to ours both now and through eternity.

            In Jesus, God was no longer the invisible God that the Jews never even dared to have seen because Jesus was the visible and tangible image of the invisible God as He represents the complete revelation of what God was like.

            What Jesus was telling Philip is what Jesus is also telling us now. If you want to see God, listen to me and look at me and believe. The way to authentic Christian belief is not to argue about Jesus but to listen to Him and to look at Him. And Jesus assures those who will believe in Him that they, like his disciples, “𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐝𝐨 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞.” (𝐯.𝟏𝟐)        

We may be led to imagine that we can do greater things, but what Jesus simply meant was that while his disciples can also heal the sick and cast out demons it does not necessarily mean that they did greater things compared to what Jesus did and we cannot outdo the One who sends us.

            The greater things that the disciples did was to go beyond the limits of what Jesus did whose evangelization campaign only took him around the Palestine region whereas the Apostles, empowered by the Holy Spirit, went to the ends of the earth to proclaim the Good News. And this is what Jesus also expects from us – that is to take the Gospel of Christ to those who will listen and believe.

            What we should also keep engraved in our minds is the promise that Jesus made at the end of this Gospel passage: “𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐬𝐤 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐦𝐲 𝐍𝐚𝐦𝐞, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐈 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐝𝐨 𝐢𝐭, 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐨𝐧 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐠𝐥𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫. 𝐘𝐞𝐬, 𝐚𝐬𝐤 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐦𝐲 𝐍𝐚𝐦𝐞, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐈 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐝𝐨 𝐢𝐭.” (𝐯𝐯.𝟏𝟑-𝟏𝟒)

            This means that not all our prayers would be granted but only prayers made in his Name will be granted. The question is can we really invoke the Name of Jesus when we pray. What we’re trying to point out is that we must be careful when praying because we must ask ourselves if we can really make our prayers in the Name of Jesus.

            This means that when we ask, our prayers must always be in accordance with the character and will of God because to use the Name of Jesus is a great privilege and we should not assume that we can use the Name of Jesus as a magic formula to get answers to our prayers.

            When Jesus allows us to use His Name when we pray, He is giving us the authority to use His Name and we should give honor and reciprocate this trust that He has given us and not use His Name in vain.

            We must know that using the Name of Jesus also carries with it tremendous responsibility because we must be aware that we are not only using the name of just another person, but we are using the name of the one who not only created us but someone in whose hands our lives rest.

            This knowledge of God must not just be a head knowledge but one that is founded on a relationship that is borne out of believing in him and sharing in his passion, death and resurrection.

Thus, to know him is to die to our own sinful nature, accept him as our personal Lord and Savior so that we may also be resurrected with him and in him for it is only in knowing Jesus that we can see God. (𝘌𝘥 𝘔𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘺 - 𝘔𝘢𝘺 2, 2026)