When we survey the Gospels, we find that the earliest
recorded words of Christ are about His Father.
The Passover feast has ended, and Mary and Joseph are on
their way back from Jerusalem when they realise they have lost the twelve-year
old child Jesus. Tradition (apart from logic) informs us of the great sorrow
that befell Mary and Joseph. They search for him and on the third day they
finally find him in the Temple. “Son, why have you treated us so?” Mary asks,
concerned and confused as to why their perfect God-Son has put them through the
grinder. “Behold your father and I have been looking for you anxiously.”
Jesus’ words are brief. A mere “statement” or “saying” (Lk
2:50) spoken from the lips of a child, almost with a teenager-like smack if the
words weren’t also laden with the mystery, weight and authority of a God: “Why
is it that you were looking for me? Did you not know that it is fitting for me to
be in my Father’s house?” (Lk 2:49).
The last words of Jesus recorded in the Gospels before
His death are likewise directed to the Father. “Father, into thy hands I
commend my spirit” (Lk 23:46).
As we know, the Holy Spirit is the ultimate author of the
Gospels. Out of all the words spoken by Jesus that could have been recorded as
His ‘first words’ in the Gospels, the account at the Temple was chosen according
to divine decree, by means of the Evangelist Luke. Here the subject is the
Father as is the final words of Jesus before His death.
The Father was constantly on the human mind of Jesus—Jesus
who was one in substance with the Father according to His divinity. His
humanity made manifest this profound oneness with the Father, His marvellous unity
and relationship with the Father.
Jesus tells us plainly, especially through the Evangelist
John. He was sent by the Father, sent on mission into the world to turn the
hearts of straggling humanity back to their Father (Jn 7; Mal 4:6).
“No one has ever seen God,” writes St. John, but “the
only begotten God, the one being in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him
known” (1 Jn 1:18).
Thus Jesus can boldly and beautifully say, “Whoever has
seen me has seen the Father” (Jn 14:9). We don’t know what the Father looks
like, He is pure spirit, non-material, beyond all sight. Yet in Jesus we can “see”
the Father. The Greek root word used as a participle here (ὁ ἑωρακὼς) is richer
than mere physical seeing, it’s a seeing with the mind, and an experiential
knowing. “Whoever has known, whoever has experienced me has known and experienced
the Father”.
Thus Paul can say “He is the image of the unseen God”
(Col 1:15), and John can write, that concerning “the Word of life,” Jesus “the
only begotten [Son] of God” who has made the Father ‘seeable’ and known: Him “we
have seen with our eyes… and our hands have touched”.
“Behold what love the Father has given us, that we should
be called children of God, and we are!” (1 Jn 3:1). Here we are entering some
of the most beautiful passages in the Scripture. Yet the passage can also be
translated as follows: “Behold what love the Father has placed in us,
that we should be called children of God”.
St. John then directs himself to us: “Beloved,” or more properly,
“Beloved ones, now children of God we are, and it has not yet been revealed
what we shall be. But we know that when He appears, we will be like Him, for we
will see Him as He is” (3:2).
Recall the Creed, “I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the
Only Begotten Son of God… consubstantial with the Father”. “Consubstantial,”
meaning “with same substance” or “of one substance” translating the Latin consubstantiálem,
which translates the Greek term: homoousios. When John writes, “We know
that when he appears we will be like Him” the word for “like” is homoioi (ὅμοιοι)
the same root used in the Greek word for consubstantial: homoousios.
However, we know that we cannot be one in substance with
the Father. Our likeness will not be a likeness by virtue of substance but by
virtue of grace—a likeness to God accomplished by grace.
This is precisely what Jesus came into the world to do.
He came on a mission from the Father to make us into children, into sons and
daughters of God. To make us one with the Father just as He is one with the
Father.
We tend to complicate things—this is what our faith is
about. It’s the purpose of the sacraments, the reason for the Church, the ultimate
plan God has for us, and the purpose of our vocations and lives: to come to
Jesus, to believe in Him, to enter Him and there be one with the Father—to love
the Father in Jesus Christ, as another Christ, as son, as child, with the Holy
Spirit who is the Love of the Father for the Son, and who is the Love of the
Son for the Father, given to us as gift, so that we might love with this Love
who is the Holy Spirit. The Spirit who pounds in our hearts, hovers over our lives,
whirls throughout creation as its sustaining power, and which above all causes
us to cry “Abba! Father!” (Rom 8:15).
After all, “this is how you should pray,” said Jesus, “Our
Father…”
“All who have this confident hope” to call on the Father
as child, “purifies himself, just as He [the Father] is pure” (1 Jn 3:3) and
will be fashioned more and more into the likeness of the only Son.
Earthly fathers, fatherly figures and parental roles are
all meant to serve as little signs of the Father and His love for us. Not all
are privileged with loving fathers, some of us are, we should be thankful for
that and we can use our love for our own fathers as spring boards to love the
Father in heaven. Yet whatever the case, the Father through Jesus His Son has
sent His Love into our hearts as Holy Spirit: placed in us at baptism,
fortified by confirmation, enkindled by prayer and acts of love. Nothing can thwart
this Love.
Just think, “what love the Father has placed in us, that
we should be called children of God… and that when He appears,” and when we
appear before Him, “we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He really is”.
