Wednesday of the Third Week of Easter (May 3, 2017): Feast of Saints Philip and James, Apostles
Thứ Ba, 02-05-2017 | 14:54:43
Today’s Readings:
1 Corinthians 15:1-8
Ps 19:2-5
John 14:6-14
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/
USCCB Podcast of the Readings:
ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/
A reading from the Holy Gospel according to John.
Jesus said to Thomas, “I am the way and the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.
If you know me, then you will also know my Father.
From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
Philip said to him,
“Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.”
Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time
and you still do not know me, Philip?
Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.
How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?
The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own.
The Father who dwells in me is doing his works.
Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me,
or else, believe because of the works themselves.
Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever believes in me will do the works that I do,
and will do greater ones than these,
because I am going to the Father.
And whatever you ask in my name, I will do,
so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it.”
Good News Reflection: The Jesus Gap
Think of any relationship you have that’s not working out the way you wish it would. Hey, if you’ve known anyone well enough to discover what you don’t like about each other, you’ve probably experienced an impasse. Either you’ve politely stop talking about it or else you’ve got an ongoing, unresolved argument. In marriage, I call this the Lover’s Gap. In any relationship, it can be called the Jesus Gap.
Why? Because Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, as we hear in today’s Gospel reading. This is the space between where the relationship is now and where we want it to be — where, in our heart, we believe it’s capable of going. This in-between space looks dark and wide, because we can’t see how to get from here to there. Only God knows how.
Jesus is the way between here and there.
It’s the same in our relationship with God. “No one comes to the Father except through me,” Jesus says. Most of us have a Jesus Gap between us and the Father, because our idea of his Fatherhood has been imperfectly shaped by the fatherhood (parenthood) modeled by imperfect people.
Jesus is the truth. The truth to embrace is that God the Father is everything we’ve always needed from a Father — and more. And as for the gap in our human relationships, the truth is that Jesus will reveal the way to reconnect. Forward movement is made by persistent, consistent effort to get past every impasse, one step at a time. One conscious, determined step at a time. With Jesus.
And as we do this, a miracle is revealed. The journey is a blessing. We discover that gaps in human relationships are okay, because Jesus fills those gaps with himself.
Today’s Prayer:
Heal me, Lord, and deliver me from those distractions that keep me from seeking You and receiving You as my God, my King, and my Savior. Amen.
© 2017 by Terry A. Modica
Tags: Apostles, Feast of Saints Philip and James, Good News Reflection, Holy Gospel according to John., Wednesday of the Third Week of Easter
