Some people know how to passionately talk about someone they know who means a lot to them and is significant in science, art, or sports. The result of such a committed witness is that we want to see and hear that person, or at least buy his book or some CD.
Jesus’ apostles witnessed that for their Teacher, the most important relationship was with God, whom he called his Father. He knew how to spend whole hours, even whole nights, in a deeply experienced conversation with the Father; he did everything in accordance with the Father’s will, and he drew strength from Him for deeds that exceeded natural possibilities. Jesus was aware of the complete harmony of his life with the Father, and therefore, at the end of his earthly life, he announces to his apostles that whoever sees Him, His life, and His deeds, can see in Him, as if in a mirror, what the Father is like. That would be something! The apostles will show interest at last in seeing Him to whom their Teacher had such a deep relationship, for whom He lived and under whose guidance He did such great and beautiful works.
Jesus responds to this concern of theirs with a surprising statement: “Whoever sees me sees the Father.” What does this visibility of the invisible God the Father consist of? In the conversation with the Samaritan woman, Jesus clearly said that “God is spirit” (Jn 4, 24). So, this similarity is not in the color of hair or eyes, the height of the figure, and the appearance of the face… So what? Again, Jesus himself makes it clear: “Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me. If not for other reasons, at least for those works, believe!” So Jesus does everything in perfect unity of love with his Father. Therefore, through His works, through His attributes, we can perceive the attitudes, characteristics and manifestation of the heavenly Father himself. Jesus is the “face” of God throughout his life.
We also know from our human experience that a person’s face also says a lot about a person’s worth. On the one hand, appearances can be deceiving. Someone has a pretty and nice look, but in reality it’s just a deceptive facade, behind which an evil inside often hides. And on the contrary, a person with an ordinary, unattractive face – yet, when we talk to him and get to know him, we are surprised by the goodness and nobility that radiates from him, which arouses our respect, admiration, and love for that person…
On the Shroud of Turin, we have preserved the image of Jesus’ tortured face, about which Isaiah’s words apply: “He has no form or beauty for us to look at him, and he has no appearance for us to desire him” (53, 2). And yet, when we think about the martyrdom of Jesus based on the Gospel, when we notice His attitudes and expressions – how he asks for forgiveness for his tormentors from the cross, as he promises paradise to the penitent criminal, as he surrenders his soul into the Father’s hands – so it must arouse admiration, respect and grateful love in us. From that tortured body and disfigured face radiates the beauty and glory of God himself. This was also felt by the centurion under the cross, who responded to Jesus’ death by exclaiming full of admiration: “This man was truly the Son of God” (Mk 15.39).
This is how the Apostle Paul understood the meaning of his action – also the one we heard about in today’s excerpt from the Acts of the Apostles: “We do not proclaim ourselves, but Jesus Christ, the Lord…For God, who said: “Let light shine out of darkness,” also shone in our hearts for the illumination of God’s glory in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor 4, 6-6).
But why was – and still is – such a different reaction of people to the mediation of God’s glory, which shines from the “face” of Jesus Christ, that is, from His life? Why do some see this glory of God and are happy about it – while others consider the fact that Jesus should be God’s image an insult, a blasphemy against God?
We have the answer in a passage from the Acts of the Apostles: “all who were predestined to eternal life believed.” This is something similar to artistic talent. Michelangelo saw a beautiful sculpture in a block of stone, while it was just a shapeless boulder for others. The ability to see by faith is primarily a gift of God. We cannot understand who gets it and why. However, it is certain that God wants to give the grace of faith to everyone. If someone doesn’t get this ability to see God in the face of Christ, it may have been caused by himself to a large extent, the environment, upbringing, may have deformed him, maybe he doesn’t have this gift now, but there is hope that God will give it to him in the future…
It is, therefore, suitable to use what Jesus assures us at the end of today’s Gospel: “I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask for something in my name, I will do it.”
So let’s ask our risen Lord to ask the Father for the gift of the light of faith for us, for everyone we care about, and for the people of our time, so that we can experience the joy of God’s goodness and beauty radiating from His “face” – and that by following Him we too become people whose lives radiate at least something of God’s presence, beauty, and goodness into our world.
