Weekly HOMILY for May 22, 2011: We Know Whose Baby This Is!

5th Sunday of Easter, Cycle A
Our Lady of Grace
(Sister Mary Therese’s Farewell Mass)
May 21, 2011

We Know Whose Baby This Is!
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato


NEW BABY

When a new baby is born and family members gather to celebrate the event, it is amusing to watch how everyone tries to analyze the infant’s genealogy from its physical characteristics.

“He has Grandpa Carl’s jaw.” “She has Aunt Mae’s eyes.” “He has his father’s ears.” “She has her mother’s nose.” “He’s the spitting image of Carl when he was a child.”

We like to see characteristics that identify someone as a member of the family. It’s a way of claiming someone new as one of our own. Or to put it another way, we like to see family members in the physical features of a newborn.


WHAT DOES GOD LOOK LIKE?

As Christians, we accept the fact of God’s existence, but as human beings we are very curious about God’s identity and characteristics. What is God really like, we wonder.

Images of God are as numerous as our human imagination allows. Artists throughout history have depicted God in a multitude of forms – anything from a concrete image of a grandfatherly old man to the more abstract concept of “the Force.”

These and all images of God are important because they have consequences. For example, an image of God as vindictive can lead us to be vindictive or harsh or even warlike.

An image of God as judgmental can lead us to feel distant from God or afraid of God or inappropriately guilty. So, how we image God and see God’s traits and characteristics is very important.


GOD LOOKS LIKE JESUS

In today’s gospel, we see the very human and curious Philip.

Philip asks Jesus, “Show us the Father” – “Show us God.” Jesus responds by presenting himself as a mirror of God.

He says, “He who has seen me has seen the Father.” And again, “I am in the Father, and the Father is in me.”

To put it simply, Jesus is the self-revelation of God. We believe that if we look at him, we see God’s self-manifestation – who God is, what God looks like.

Saint John in his gospel calls Jesus the Word of God – God’s self-expression. We accept Jesus as the Son of God.

In his very being, his concerns, his thoughts, and his actions, Jesus reflects the mind and heart of God. And so, similar to our looking at a baby and seeing the parents or grandparents in the baby’s features, we can look at Jesus and see his Father, God himself.


MYSTERY AND KNOWLEDGE

No question, we believe that God is mystery, that God is beyond our human ability to know and understand completely.

But by looking at Jesus, we believe that we can learn and know a great deal about God. The characteristics w see in him, we can attribute to God.

When we hear Jesus saying, “Let those among you who are without sin cast the first stone,” we know that God is patient and forgiving. When we see Jesus mingling with tax collectors and other so-called sinners, we know that God is absolutely inclusive and outreaching.

When we hear Jesus talking about the shepherd seeking out the one lost sheep, we know that God values each one of us personally. And when we hear Jesus saying “Whatever you do for the least of my brothers and sisters, that you do for me,” we know that God is especially compassionate and empathetic for anyone in any kind of need.


CONCLUSION

Read the gospels with an eye on Jesus and you can see God in action.

In the words of Jesus, hear God speaking
In the concerns of Jesus, see God’s concerns
In the gestures of Jesus, see the gestures of God.

Your curiosity – and fears – about God can be laid to rest – like Phillip’s in today’s gospel – the more you look at and come to understand Jesus.