see
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Who Do You See?

The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke tell a more or less chronological account of the public life of Jesus. But John, well, John is different. It’s mystical and full of symbols. It’s a beautiful and astounding look at the Lord.

Today, Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees, and they are having a really hard time understanding Him, seeing from His point of view.

He said to them, “You belong to what is below,
I belong to what is above.
You belong to this world,
but I do not belong to this world.
That is why I told you that you will die in your sins.
For if you do not believe that I AM,
you will die in your sins.”
So they said to him, “Who are you?”
Jesus said to them, “What I told you from the beginning.
I have much to say about you in condemnation.
But the one who sent me is true,
and what I heard from him I tell the world.”
They did not realize that he was speaking to them of the Father. – Jn 8:23-17

Since we know who Jesus is (the Son of the God, the second Person of the Most Holy Trinity), we have an advantage over the Pharisees here. They are only able to think in earthy terms. They have a narrow notion of who and what the Messiah will be, and Jesus isn’t it. They cannot see what is right in front of them.

It’s easy to scoff at them  (“Dumb bunnies! How could they miss that this was the Messiah??”) But we do exactly the same thing. We miss what is right in front of us.

I have a friend who is an amazing nature photographer. She sends me pictures of flowers waiting to burst open, birds posed in flight, a tiny insect making its way through a vast bed of greenery. Her vision of nature is detailed and artistic. While I know how to work a camera, I completely miss what she sees. It’s like she has another dimension of sight that I don’t have.

How often do we, like the Pharisees, ignore what is in front of us? Usually it’s because of pride; we think we already know everything. We are “better than.” We don’t speak that language. God the Father puts exactly the same thing in front of us that He has put in front of every saint in history … and we are still profoundly confused, proud, blind to the Truth.

Jesus has a singular vision: the will of the Father. He is focused only on that, despite all that goes on around Him as He carries out the Father’s will. We cannot see we exactly as he sees, but He invites us to try. Pope Benedict XVI (writing as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger):

Yes, you can see God. Whoever sees Christ sees him…

For the next question is now (for all of post-apostolic Christianity, at least): How can you see Christ and see him in such a way that you see the Father at the same time? …

The seeing occurs in following after, Following Christ as his disciple is a life lived at the place where Jesus stands, and this place is the Passion. In it, and nowhere else, is his glory present.

What does this demonstrate? The concept of seeing has acquired an unexpected dynamic. Seeing happens through a manner of living that we call following after. Seeing occurs by entering into the Passion of Jesus. There we see, and in him we see the Father also. From this perspective the words of the prophet quoted at the end of the Passion narrative of John attain their full greatness: “They shall look on him whom they have pierced” (Jn 19:37)

When we “follow after” Christ, when we become His disciples, when we pick up our Cross and pursue Him: we shall see. We need to stop questioning, interrogating Jesus like the Pharisees in today’s Gospel. Today, Jesus answers the question, “Who are you?” Let us see Him clearly, with eyes of faith.

 

EH headshotElise Hilton is an author, blogger and speaker. Her role at Diocesan Publications is Editor & Writer with the Marketing Team. She has worked in parish faith formation and Catholic education for over 25 years. A passionate student of theology, Elise enjoys sharing her thoughts on parish communication, the role of social media in the Church, Franciscan spirituality and Catholic parenting. To enquire about booking her as a speaker, please contact her at ehilton@diocesan.com.

hour had not
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His Hour Had Not Yet Come

His hour had not yet come.  The “Jews”( codeword in the Gospel of John for that subset of Jewish people who opposed Jesus), were out to get Jesus.  They wanted to kill him, to wipe him from the face of the earth, to put an end once and for all to this one who was obnoxious to them.  Our reading from the Book of Wisdom reveals harshly to us the mind of those who wish to kill God’s Just One.  Wisdom also tells us that those who do so think themselves able to put God to the test, able to thwart the plans of God.

His hour had not yet come.  They had tried to arrest him, they had forced Jesus to move about in a hidden way.  And yet he was still recognized, the people still knew who this Just One was and that he is the Christ.  What would someone have thought who was there, who saw Jesus in Jerusalem for the feast of Tabernacles?  He was not, at least for the moment, teaching on the mountaintop or in the Temple, but he was still clearly the Christ, the one sent by the Father.

His hour had not yet come.  The Jewish authorities, those who opposed Jesus, thought that they were in charge.  This pattern had repeated itself many times: a prophet arises, a bunch of desperate people follow him, the prophet is killed, the story ends.  In the minds of those in charge, Jesus was nothing more than another instance of this story, and they were in charge of the ending.  Time to take charge and end the story.

His hour had not yet come.  Even the people had doubts about Jesus.  “But we know where he is from.  When the Christ comes, no one will know where he is from.”  The Christ is supposed to be unknown to them, someone with an enigmatic history and a story that does not look like the story of our lives.  Somehow or other the Christ, the anointed one of God, the savior, is supposed to be drastically different than the rest of us, a Superman figure.  But they know that Jesus is from Nazareth, and that he is the son of Joseph and Mary.  This must rule him out.

His hour had not yet come.  Jesus reminds us that God is in charge.  The will of the Father will not be thwarted, will not be undone.  Nor will the plan of God bend to the ordinary rules of human engagement: politics and power and expectation.  In the plan of God, Jesus was not supposed to be arrested yet, he was not supposed to die yet.  And so he did not.  Perhaps the story really is that simple: God has not willed it, it has not happened.  Period.

His hour had not yet come.  What happens when his “hour” does come?  What then?  Is God still the one in charge?  Or does he cede control to someone or something else?  Is the plan of God still moving forward at that “hour”?  No one laid a hand upon him, because his hour had not yet come.  Soon enough, they will lay a hand upon him, and much more than that.

Yet I did not come on my own.  Jesus was – is – sent by the Father do to the will of the Father.  Nothing more, nothing less.  The will of the Father is that he die on the cross and rise to new life to save our lives.  And nothing, no one, will stop him.

 

time had not yet comeFr. Scott Nolan is a priest of the Diocese of Grand Rapids and serving as the Pastor of St. Stephen Parish in East Grand Rapids, MI.