16 Vol. LX, No. 1 Magnificat He Himself teaches this to us in His Gospel. Saint Philip the Apostle had become enamored of the Father, of whom Jesus spoke so beautifully. He exclaimed, “Lord, show us the Father, and that is enough for us!” Our Lord replied: Philip, he who sees Me, sees the Father.4 Basically, Philip was right, but what he desired is reserved for eternal life. On Mount Sinai, Moses had already asked God to show him His face. The Most High had replied that no mortal can contemplate the face of God without dying. The Eternal Father showed Himself to him from behind. Moses had to be satisfied with that.5 If we wanted to quote everything Our Lord said about His Father, we would have to read the entire Gospel. That would not be a bad thing. I strongly encourage you to do so, if only one page a day. On this day, when we want to pay special tribute to the paternity of God, let us be good, compliant little children and put ourselves in the school of Our Lord Jesus Christ, who though He was by nature God, did not consider being equal to God a thing to be clung to, but emptied Himself, taking the nature of a slave and being made like unto men. 4. St. John 14:9. 5. Exodus 33:18-23. And appearing in the form of man, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient to death, even to death on a cross.6 O my brothers and sisters, what examples! What lessons! As God, the Word could not obey. So He became man to honor His Father perfectly in our name and place. Father, here I am. Behold, I come to do Thy will, O God.7 The adorable Will of God The Eternal Father is God’s will, His creative will, His mighty hand that made all things. Scripture tells us: The heavens show forth the glory of God, and the firmament declareth the work of His hands.8 Our Lord Himself invites us to contemplate creation in order to know the Creator. Look at the birds of the air, consider the lilies of the field.9 After creating, God the Father governs His creation. He preserves it and brings it to its end: this is Providence, a new manifestation of the adorable Will of our Heavenly Father. God’s creative will is adorable; creation, on the other hand, is not. It is important to make this distinction. Apart from the holy humanity of Jesus Christ, no creature, not even the most perfect, is adorable. We adore the body of Jesus Christ because He is God incarnate. The Word of God is hypostatically united to the humanity of Jesus. The same is not true of the Saints in Heaven. They are fused with the Divinity, becoming one with It, but they retain their personality. That is why we do not adore them. We adore God alone. But we must honor them, for it pleases God. God’s will is adorable; the creature’s is not. Jesus, standing before Pilate, said to him: You would have no power at all over Me had you not received it from above.10 Our Lord recognized Pilate as the representative 6. Philippians 2:6-8. 7. Cf. Hebrews 10:7; Psalm 39:8-9. 8. Psalm 18:2. 9. Cf. St. Matthew 6:26,28. 10. St. John 19:11. SAINT PHILIP THE APOSTLE “Lord, show us the Father and it is enough for us!”
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