People who knew my Father often tell me that I am very much like him in mannerisms and in attitudes. I take that as a compliment because I truly believe that my Father was/is one of the unsung heroes of our land. I suppose most of us think in that way about our fathers/mothers and we often seek to emulate them, consciously or unconsciously.

For Jesus it must have been the same so that he could say; “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” In a very true way Jesus made the Father present to the people of his time through his attitudes to life, through the relationships which he developed, through his care, concern and compassion for all those who found themselves on the margins. Jesus was indeed Emmanuel, God-with-us.

Emmanuel – God-with-us was not a God seeking worldly power. Emmanuel was in fact a God concerned with offering new possibilities to a people and a world which had lost their way. The world was meant to be a place of true justice, of peace and of harmonious relationships.

The world had become just the opposite and Emmanuel  – God-with-us had come to offer new possibilities to a “people who walked in darkness”.

The new possibilities, which this God offered, all centred around new ways of relating with God and with each other so that communities had the possibility of becoming communities in which everyone felt loved and cared for. This was in fact how scripture defined the communities that accepted these new possibilities. It was said of them “See how they love each other.”

One of the tragedies of our age is precisely the too frequent absence of Gospel values from both the religious and the secular spheres. We no longer make Christ’s love, which we celebrate at Easter, present. While it is true that Jesus no longer walks with us in earthly form, the new possibilities which he offered by his life and teaching still have to be offered in this era and to people of this generation.

Emmanuel – God-with-us has to be made present in this era and to this generation and it is those who consider themselves disciples of Jesus who have to make him present so that new possibilities be made present and accessible to those of this generation. By our very lives you and I are called to tell others that we need not get involved in the rat race. There is another way of being.

The world in which we live has accepted to a large extent the operating paradigm of the industrialised West. This paradigm is a model of growth and development whose controlling logic for growth is not human need but greed.

This way of thinking is present in all strata of society and must be confronted by the values given to us in the Gospel if we are to avoid the destruction this way of thinking will bring upon us.

One of the characteristics of the Christian community recaptured by the Second Vatican Council is the role of the laity. While the vocation of priests and religious deals to a large extent with the religious, the vocation of the laity is to make the Gospel present and alive in the secular sphere – in the world of business, sports, politic... Making the Gospel alive however, is more than speaking, it entails a way of life in which the values of which one speaks become alive not only in our way of acting but in our very selves.

The task before us can be very daunting. Who are we, little individuals as we are, to confront the enormous power of the corporate world and the values inherent in the growth model of development? The answer is given to us in today’s Gospel passage.

Jesus said Philip, “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.”

Just as it was the Father dwelling in Jesus who did his works, so today it is Jesus dwelling in us who will do the work of confronting the false values of the growth model of development.

I suppose that Martin Luther King must have asked the same question. Who was he to confront the tremendous political power of the southern United States?

He was convinced, as were all our saints who went before him, that it was the indwelling Christ who would do the work through him. Mother Teresa of Calcutta was also convinced that her work among the poor on the streets and in the slums was Christ’s work and so she had no fear of failure.

If we believe it is Christ dwelling within us who will do the work, we know, like all the saints before us, that we will not fail.

Prayer

All powerful and ever-loving God, the world in which we live is not the world You want.

The values You gave to us in the beginning have all been supplanted by others. You have called us however to be agents of restoration. The great saints of our Church have always understood this and gave their energies and their lives for this purpose.

We are often afraid and discouraged, Lord, so help us to believe in your presence within us. Just as You told Philip that it was the Father dwelling in you doing his works, so convince us that it is You dwelling in us who will do Your work. We ask this through the intercession of Mary our mother and your Son Jesus.

Gospel Meditations for April are by Fr Joseph Harris CSSp. A former rector of the Regional Seminary, Fr Harris is parish priest of St Ann’s and the Archdiocesan Judicial Vicar.