Jn 14,7-14 – Saint Athanasius, Bishop and Doctor of the Church – Memory
“Lord, show us the Father and it will suffice for us.” This request from Philip is profoundly human. It is the desire to finally reach God, to see, to have certainty. But Jesus’ response is surprising: «Who has seen me he saw the Father».
It is a revolution in our way of thinking about faith. Because we too often say we believe in God, but we risk referring to a vague, abstract, almost indefinite idea. A belief that remains distant from life. Jesus, however, brings us back to something specific: God has a face. And that face is his. We do not have to imagine God, nor construct him in our minds. We must look to Christ. For a Christian, believing in God means believing in Jesus. It means recognizing in Him the full revelation of the Father. It is in his life, in his gestures, in his words that we can understand who God is.
This changes everything. Because it is no longer about adhering to something indefinite, but about entering into a relationship with someone. Not a theory, but a presence. God is not a distant hypothesis in the universe. It’s not something impersonal. For us Christians it has a name and a face. It is Jesus. And then faith becomes concrete. It becomes a path in which we learn to look, to listen, to follow Him. Because it is in Him that the mystery of God becomes close, understandable, accessible.
Saturday 2 May 2026 – (Saint Athanasius, Bishop and Doctor of the Church – Memory)
