Daily Gospel Reflection
Join the Notre Dame family of faith. Receive God’s Word and a unique reflection in your inbox each day.
May 3, 2021
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.”
As I read this gospel, I took stock of the fact that today is the feast of the apostles Philip and James. I was a bit surprised to find a certain line directed at Philip in this reading: “Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip?” If I was an apostle and I had a feast day, I think I would want a reading that was a bit more flattering regarding my time with the Lord.
As I thought about it, I realized that the apostles are the perfect people to be open with their failings in faith. They are the ones who experienced Jesus in person–witnessing his miracles and walking in his love–and yet struggled to fully comprehend his identity. That is exactly what we see in this gospel passage. To be fair to Philip (and James, perhaps), Jesus is asking for a big step forward in faith. He is saying not only that he is the way to the Father, he is saying he is one with the Father. They did not have the benefit of hearing homilies, year after year, fumbling through the concept of the Trinity which, in the end, communicate quite effectively the difficulty of this doctrine. They were hearing this for the first time.
I recently felt much like Philip in my faith. I have returned to regular Sunday Mass after being fully vaccinated and I find that receiving the Eucharist is quite overwhelming. I can imagine all the times in the past when I received the sacrament and took it for granted that Jesus might say to me, “Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me?”
The line I chose from this gospel which seems a bit harsh to Philip is, perhaps, unfair to pull out of the text. Philip’s request to Jesus which elicits this response is this: ““Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” That desire is quite simple and beautiful when we view it not as a failing of faith but as a desire for God. Even when we cannot comprehend the unity of the Father and the Son, let us always have the faith to ask Jesus to show us the Father, as Philip does. Jesus will never fail to do so.
Prayer
Jesus proclaims, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life.” Lord, this Easter mystery emboldened your apostles to preach the power of your resurrection from the dead, even to suffer martyrdom for the sake of your name. Though few if any of us will be asked to die a martyr’s death, help us to share the glory of your cross in how we live for others today, for it is our only hope and the way of our life. Amen!
Saint of the Day
Today is the feast of both St. Philip and St. James the Lesser. Their feast days are commemorated on the same day in honor of the church in Rome named after them, now called the Church of the Twelve Apostles.
St. Philip is listed as among the Twelve Apostles in the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke—called "synoptic" because of their textual similarities, from the Greek meaning "seeing together") and is one of the few disciples called by Jesus in the Gospel of John. Philip appears in several important passages in the Gospel of John.
The end of the first chapter of John's Gospel relates Christ calling Philip, who is from Bethsaida, the same town north of the Sea of Galilee where Andrew and Peter are from. Philip, in turn, goes to Nathanael and tells him that Jesus from Nazareth is the Messiah. What good can come from Nazareth? asks Nathanael.
"Come and see," responds Philip.
In the Feeding of the Five Thousand, Christ asks Philip how to obtain enough bread for all these people. The Evangelist says that Christ asked Philip this question to "test him" (Jn 6:6). Poor Philip seems not to pass the test, as he responds, "it would take more than half a year's wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bit!" (Jn 6:7)
Philip and Jesus have exchanges throughout the Gospel of John. Perhaps Philip's prominence in this Gospel inspired other extra-canonical gospel writers. Several early-church texts such as the Letter from Peter to Philip and the Acts of Philip tell more about Philip's life after Christ's Ascension. These texts both paint him as a passionate missionary who spread Christ's Gospel to Syria and Turkey.
Philip is shown with a cross in the paintings above by El Greco and to the right by Rubens because he is believed to have been crucified. But, during his crucifixion, he still preached from the cross, until his very last breath.
St. Philip, apostle and martyr, who invited friends and strangers to "come and see" Christ's salvation—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Philip is in the public domain. Last accessed February 21, 2025 on Wikimedia Commons.
