The Catholic Calendar for Tuesday, May 3, 2005
Tuesday of the Sixth Week of Easter
St. Phillip, St. James, apostles
Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
Acts 8:5-8,14-17
Psalm 66:1-7,16,20
John 14:15-21
A reflection on today's Sacred Scripture:
Ever since Moses, God's people had longed to see Him and look upon His face. But to look directly at the glory of God's face was to risk death. Even speaking and writing His name came with risks. In essence God was something far away that no one saw and no one spoke about in an intimate way. The priests were necessary for everyday people to commune with God and even they had strict rules on how this was to take place.
Given this, it is no wonder that when our Lord came his followers did not recognize Him for what He really was. In today's first reading Paul goes to great lengths to tell us just who saw the risen Lord and in the Gospel we learn of two apostles - those closest to Jesus - did not see Him for what He really is. The Lord tells Thomas that since he has seen Jesus he has seen the Father only to immediately be asked by Philip, "Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us." How they longed to look directly at God, but also how hard-hearted they must have been! These men had been conditioned their entire lives to believe they could never see God so this should be no surprise.
Jesus continues to show Himself to us today, most wonderfully in the Eucharist. As He told his followers, "Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father." What a wonderful and glorious gift He has made to us, a gift which countless followers prior to the Lord's visit to us would have given anything to receive. And how blessed we are to receive this gift and see our God in daily mass and adoration.
- Don Claunch, SFO
(dlclaunch at bresnan dot net)
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posted by joachim at 10:23 AM