Saturday in the Fourth Week of Easter, April 26, 2024

John 14, 7-14

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.”

Today’s Gospel Reading is taken from St. John’s account of the Lord’s Last Supper Discourse to his Apostles.  He teaches them about the perfect unity he shares with his Father.  When we read his words, we should keep in mind the ancient Jewish understanding that a father was always primary with respect to his son but that the son, especially if he was first-born, could represent his father officially, as we see in the Parable of the Tenants (cf. Matthew 21, 37) and act in his stead.  Nor is this understanding limited to  legal or business matters, but is to be equated with identity, for the son was the father to a degree unimaginab in today’s Western world with its extreme notions of the individual as autonomous, etc.

“If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”  The Greek has, If you have known me, with the verb in the perfect tense, indicating a completed action that has produced results that continue to the present time.  The Lord is saying to the Apostles that if they have grown to know him as he is, then they will come to know the Father too.  The closer we grow to the Son, the closer we grow to the Father.  This has as among its practical effects knowing the Father’s will and more ably carrying it out.  

“How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?”  Jesus is in the Father and the Father is in him not so that their identities are mixed or confused but that Jesus and the Father share an intimacy that is quite apart from than any human conception of intimacy: “The Father who dwells in me is doing his works.”  The Lord knows very well that what he is revealing goes beyond what the Apostles were taught in the Torah: “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.”  That is, Whoever believes that I am in union with my Father.  Jesus is speaking of his divinity, that he is God.  Those who believe that he is God will do his works — preaching and healing — and do “greater” ones in the sense that they will be required to have faith to do them, whereas the Lord had perfect knowledge.  They will accomplish these works not only outside of his proximity, as they hid when he sent them on mission, but when he is in heaven with his 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.”  This is a tremendous promise.  The Father, who “dwells” in the Son, does his works, and the Son will perform these works through his Apostles and those who firmly believe in him.  God will do these works through the cooperation of the believer.  Now, the Lord is not saying that he will grant us whatever it is we ask for, for he will hardly grant something immoral that is asked for, but for that which will lead to the salvation of souls, for which purpose the Lord came into the world and for which he died.

How dearly Jesus loved his Apostles — and loves us — in revealing the intimacy he shared with his Father.  He shares his very self with them in the hours before he suffers on the Cross, earnestly desiring to know the One who was about to lay down his life for them!

The eighteenth article in our continuing series on the Holy Mass: The Consecration

The approved English translation of the consecration of the Body of Christ in the current Roman Missal: “Take this, all of you, and ear of it, for this is my Body, which will be given up for you.”  And that of the Blood of Christ: “Take this, all of how, and drink from it, for this is the chalice of my Blood, the Blood of the new and eternal covenant, which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.  Do this in memory of me.”  These differ from the words of consecration in the previous Missal, that of 1962, which essentially goes back to the third or fourth century.  The translation for the consecration of the Blood of Christ in that Missal: “Take and drink from this, all of you: This is the chalice of my Blood, of the new covenant: the mystery of faith: which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.”  The main point here is that it is the Church which gives us and authorizes the words, as we say, of institution, according to the power of binding and loosing, granted her by Jesus Christ.  That it is necessary and right for the Church to do this arises from the fact that in the Sacred Scriptures we receive four versions of the consecrations.  For instance, St. Matthew records: “Take ye and eat. This is my Body . . . Drink ye all of this. For this is my Blood of the new covenant, which shall be shed for many unto the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26, 26-28).  However, St. Luke presents the consecration this way: “This is my Body, which is given for you. Do this for a commemoration of me . . . This is the chalice, the new covenant in my Blood, which shall be shed for you. ” (Luke 21, 18-20).  St. Paul hands on the rule of the consecration in 1 Corinthians 11, 24-25.  The differences may seem slight but they are important, and so the Holy Church combines the versions into one so that the fullest sense of what the Lord intended is provided us.

The priest is instructed by the Missal to speak these words clearly and distinctly so that all might hear them.  This was true even during the centuries when the rest of the Eucharistic Prayer were said quietly.  After the priest himself adores the Lord now present upon the altar, he elevates him for all to adore, first the Body in the form of the Host, and then the Lord’s Blood within the chalice.  These two elevations began to be done between 1100 and 1200 in response to a controversy regarding the nature of the Lord’s presence in the Sacrament.  By raising the Host and the chalice and giving them to the people to adore, the Church reaffirms her belief that the bread and the wine are transformed into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.

Next: The Memorial Acclamation