Just Show Me - Then I Will Believe

Jesus said to his disciples: 
"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 Jesus, 
"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."

Well, Once again the apostles prove that they just didn’t get it.  Philip says to Jesus, “Show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”  Really, Phillip?  This conversation took place at the Last Supper, quite late in the game and you would not blame Jesus very much if he started banging His head on the table.  These men had been with Him for about three years, day in and day out.  They had heard every word that He said, had received explanations of parables that were outside of their understanding, they have seen miracles and Philip tells Jesus to show him the Father. Jesus, who had the patience of Job, carefully explains to Philip that if they are seeing Jesus, they are seeing the Father. After this explanation, did they now understand?  I don’t know if at this moment they realized the importance of what had just been told to them.  Jesus, knowing that the game clock was running down and that he had no more timeouts continued to tell these good men what they needed to hear.  Jesus would have to rely on the Holy Spirit to remind them of things and as we can see from how the Church grew, these simple men, ordinary in every respect, people just like you and me, planted the Church everywhere that they went. It cost them dearly in the end, all but John would be martyred for the faith but see all of the good that they were able to do with the help of the Holy Spirit.  We too are called to build the City of God.  We too are the planters of the seed. Our duty is to plant seeds in the garden we have been given. Our missionary journies may take us from the living room to the kitchen but they are no less important than the mission journies of the Apostles. They went and said, “Full speed ahead and damn the torpedos.”  They planted where they went and they nurtured the seeds when they could but they remembered that they were the sowers and God was the reaper.

In the olden days of my youth and before, children would follow their parents into whatever church that the parents went to.  Catholic children would end up being Catholic adults and Baptist kids would be Baptist adults, etc. Today, this is not as true as it was before.  Take for example in my family. I have one sister that has gone over to Willow Creek, which is a megachurch that I call a “Church of What’s Happening Now.” My other sister has abandoned the faith altogether and both of my sisters, who were the pride and joy of St, Joseph and St. Anne School, have adopted an “I am a survivor” type attitude when the nuns were absolutely in love with them.  I am the one that should have had trouble following my faith because I had nothing but nun troubles in school.  As far as I know, I am the only one from my family that has gone on and followed my Catholic faith.  As a matter of fact, I thank the nuns, they taught me the faith well and while I could not understand math, I understood that Jesus loved me. 

But today, I hear of good Catholic parents who have done what they can to bring their children up in the faith, but the kids once they have a choice go another route.  This has to be painful for the parents.  But we have to remember, as long as we plant the seed, God will do what He can to make sure it sprouts, but even God has to allow His children to use their free will.  Here is what we should do.  When you are in an airplane, if you’ve paid attention to the safety briefing, you will note that they say if you suddenly see an air mask drop down, put yours on before you put on your children. That is what we must do when it comes to our family members that do not seem to want to follow the faith.  We must take care of our souls first and God will give us the strength we need to prevail against all adversaries.  We must remain a good example for those around us for bringing someone back to the fold is not a matter of shaming them back, it is a matter of loving them back.  Our kindness and out loving attitude will do more than a dozen Sunday sermons. Eventually, they will see Jesus in us and they will want what we have.  God bless!

Pray for the poor Souls in Purgatory Today!