When I was growing up, my parents did not let me watch “The Simpsons” because, I suppose, they thought it too crude and disrespectful. So, of course, when I was in college seminary, and “The Simpsons” came on TV, I was definitely going to sit down and watch it. And if you’ve watched “The Simpsons,” or even if you haven’t, you’re probably familiar with the character Homer Simpson, the lazy, glutinous, well-meaning, and sometimes philosophizing dad. Homer has a quintessential word, or maybe grunt is a more appropriate word, that is associated with him: doh! You might imagine Homer hitting his head while he says it, which gives it the proper context, a grunt and action of futility and frustration.
If Jesus was Homer (and that comparison, obviously, is an absurd one), when St. Philip said, “‘Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us’”, Jesus would have said, “Doh!” For three years Philip had been following Jesus each day, seeing the miracles, hearing the teaching, and now, at the Last Supper, Jesus is giving His farewell address before He dies on the cross. Jesus comes to His great unveiling to the Apostles of His unity with the Father and says, “‘If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.’” And what does Philip say? “Jesus, just show us the Father and we’ll be good.” It’s like the teacher saying, “2 x 3 = 6,” and then the student saying, “So wait: what’s 2 x 3?”
Jesus reveals the Father in everything He does. Jesus is not the Father, but He is the revelation of the Father, so that we no longer have to wonder what the Father is like. We see it in Jesus. Jesus only heals at the will of the Father. Jesus only teaches what the Father wants taught. Jesus loves with the love of the Father. Jesus only suffers because that is the will of the Father. No one can truly come to the Father without the Son. This is the basis of our claim, that, if not true, would be pure arrogance: Jesus is the only means of salvation. He is, as St. Peter said the second reading, the “cornerstone,” upon which the entire heavenly kingdom is built. Without the cornerstone, the whole building collapses. Without Jesus, there is no heaven for us. With Jesus, we have a place in the heavenly temple.
But that revelation of the Father through Jesus continues in our day. Bishop Barron is coming out with a new series on the sacraments, and I was able to get a sneak peak at episode one, about the sacraments in general and baptism in particular. Bishop Barron quotes Pope St. Leo the Great: “What was visible in our Savior has passed over into his mysteries.” That last part of the sentence in the original Latin is: “in sacramenta transivit.” Mysteries was another way of saying sacraments, and, in fact, in the Christian East, they still refer to the sacraments as mysteries. But the point is that we see the Father through Jesus, and we see Jesus especially through the sacraments. The sacraments are our opportunities to encounter Jesus in a powerful way.
And yet, how often do we think: I wish I could just talk with Jesus? I wish I could see Jesus? I wish I could hear Jesus? As Homer would say, “Doh!” Through the sacraments of baptism, penance, the Eucharist, confirmation, holy matrimony, holy order, and anointing of the sick, we encounter Christ in a way that He gave us, and through our encounter with Christ, we encounter the Father. The sacraments are not “church graduations” after we pass a class. They are opportunities that we can encounter God, a new beginning of, and the fruit of, a relationship that we have with God.
Why did Philip miss what Jesus was saying at the Last Supper? Why was Philip confused after Jesus said, “‘If you know me, then you will also know my Father’”? How Philip was expecting to experience the Father was not the way the Father was revealing Himself. And maybe, more often than we’d like to admit, we miss it, too, because we want to experience the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit on our terms.
How often do we come to Mass expecting to be entertained, or to feel something, or to “get something out of it”? We can equate those with encountering God, and sometimes we do encounter God in that way. But we can want the Father to reveal Himself on our terms, in our ways rather than His ways. I know watching Mass on live-stream, as great of a blessing as it is, brings with it even more challenges to paying attention, participating, and really offering ourselves to the Father through Christ the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit. But right now, this is how Jesus is revealing the Father.
Like St. Philip, we all want to encounter the Father. Like St. Philip, that happens through Jesus, and therefore especially through the seven sacraments which flow from Jesus’ Mystical Body, the Church. May both you and I, no matter what, cling to Jesus and the ways that He reveals to us the love of the Father in heaven.
