Whoever sees me, sees the Father

Mass Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Easter 2010 John 12: 40-50 Introduction – Fr. Mark ‘Whoever sees me, sees the Father’ – So declares Jesus in today’s Gospel Reading. It’s not easy to believe in an Invisible Father. But Jesus’ words are; “If you believe in me, you believe the Father”. So, there must be a new way of knowing the Father. When we see what Jesus does and says in the Gospels in some way we known and experience the Father. By uniting ourselves to Jesus as we meet him in the Gospels and our daily lives we are in some mysterious manner touching the hem of the Father’s garment. 1. God the Father, in you reveal yourself to us, Lord have mercy … 2. You show us your care and love in the words and actions of your Son, Christ have mercy … 3. You give us eternal life that we may be with you for ever, Lord have mercy … Night Office Second Reading - Saint Ambrose from a commentary on psalm 118 by (Sermo 7, 6-7: CSEL 62, 130-131) Christians, Ambrose teaches, are sustained in time of affliction by hope based upon the word of God God's word gives life to our souls and guides us in all we do. In time of affliction my comfort lies in this, that your word gives me life. Here is the hope that your promise arouses in me. It brings me comfort, enabling me to bear the misfortunes of these present times and to face the future with confidence. See how God's word reassures us! We read in the Letter to the Romans: What can come between us and the love of Christ? Can trouble, or worry, or persecution, or hunger, or peril; or the sword? It is written: For your sake we are being massacred daily, and reckoned as sheep for the slaughter. Then Saint Paul goes on to explain how it is possible to endure such trials with patience. In all these things, he says, we triumph by the power of him who loved us. So then, if anyone is determined to overcome adversity, whether persecution or peril or death, whether his body is wasted by disease or whether burglars break into his house or his property is confiscated, or whether he suffers anything else that the world considers a disaster, he will succeed without effort if he is buoyed up by hope. Even if these calamities should overtake him, they will not weigh heavily upon him as long as he can say: I reckon the sufferings of this life are not worth comparing with the glory that is to come. Slight afflictions can never crush anyone who lives in the hope of receiving something far better. In time of affliction, then, our comfort lies in hope, a hope that does not disappoint us. It seems to me that the time of affliction is the time when we are tempted. It is indeed an affliction for a soul to be handed over to the tempter to be tested by harsh trials, and to experience the assaults of a hostile power. But as we wrestle with temptations God's promises put new life into us. His word is in fact the very lifeblood of our souls, nourishing, sustaining, and guiding us; there is no other source of life for our spiritual nature. Just as God's word grows in our souls according to the measure in which we receive and understand it and are able to assimilate its meaning, so too the life of our souls expands. Similarly, if our souls cease to find consolation in the promises of God, they begin to lose what life they had And as the organic union of our body and soul is established, nurtured, and maintained by the breath of life, so too our soul is endowed with life by the word of God and the breath of his grace. Let all other affairs take second place, therefore, and let us strive by every means in our power to make God's consoling promises our treasure. If we store them up in our minds and hearts, if we allow them to influence all our concerns and govern all our thoughts and undertakings, then all our actions will be in tune with the words of Scripture and our lives will not be at variance with the teaching of the sacred writers. In this way we too shall be able to testify: Your word gives us life. Responsory Psalm 118:49.50.105 Remember your word to your servant, by which you gave me hope. _ In time of trouble this is my comfort: that your promise give me life, alleluia. Your word is a lamp for my feet, and a light for my path. - In time of ...