Feast of Philip and James

The feasts of the Apostles are always special and today, on the feast of Philip and James, the words of Jesus to Philip deepen for us the meaning of the Incarnation, the coming of the Son of God into our human life. For the Jewish people, the words of Jesus to Philip in today's gospel would have sounded incredible. In answer to Philip, Jesus says, ''To have seen me is to have seen the Father.'' (John 14:6-14). For the Jews, the distance between God and human beings was so great that they would never have dared to think that they could see God. Even when Moses asked God to show him his glory, the Lord said, ''You cannot see my face, for no one shall see me and live.'' (Exodus 33:20). And now Jesus reveals to Philip that ''It is the Father living in me who is doing this work.'' The Father is no longer a distant, unknown God, but he is here on earth in the person of Jesus. The Word who is the God through whom all things came into being was present talking to Philip, James and the others. As John wrote at the beginning of his first letter, ''Our ears have heard, our eyes have seen and our hands touched this Word. This eternal life that was with the Father has appeared to us.'' At Christmas, we recognized the Word of God in the baby in the crib. Our challenge now is to see and recognize him in every moment of our daily life.