Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
-John 14:9, ESV
John’s Gospel tells us that Jesus is the Word, the Memra, the second Yahweh figure who was visible to the Israelites during the events of the Old Testament. This Gospel was incredibly important to me when I became a Christian, struggling with the question of who Jesus is. I walked something like the Romans Road to salvation, aware of my sin and my inability to meet the standard of righteousness required by God. The prevailing feeling at that time was fear. “Sinners in the hands of an angry God.”
Luke’s Gospel, which I was studying at the time in school as part of my Religious Studies course, emphasised Jesus as the Son of God. Little was provided to help us understand what that meant. I was also studying Latin and Ancient Greek at the time, so I had the Greco-Roman concepts attached to this phrase, but they seemed inappropriate to the monotheism of Judaism. Luke’s Gospel also impressed upon me the same sense of dread I was feeling in Romans, because it features the preaching of John the Baptist before the Temptation in the Wilderness and the beginning of the Galilean Ministry. John the Baptist struck me as a “fire and brimstone” sort of preacher – scary.
Then I turned to John’s Gospel, and found some of the confusion and fear I was experiencing lifted. John told me that Jesus is God. This answered the deep, searching question within me about who Jesus is. But it went further than that. John’s Gospel told me what God wanted of us in the simplest of terms: to be believe on Jesus Christ whom He has sent. Jesus promised never to turn away anyone who came to Him, and He promised that He would raise up on the last day all those who died believing in Him.
John’s Gospel allowed me to see God in Jesus, just as Paul calls Jesus “the image of the invisible God”. In Jesus I saw a God who cared about righteousness as I had seen in Romans and Luke, but I also saw a God who was compassionate on the sinner, who understood our weaknesses and who loved us nonetheless. I saw a God who was willing to do whatever was necessary – and more – to save us and to show His love to us. In that sense, I saw two glories – the glory of Jesus as Yahweh, the Creator, but also the simple glory of Jesus as Love, as Kindness.
Jesus is the Word of the Father: He is the Father’s message to mankind. If you want to know what God is saying to us, look at Jesus.
All Along the Watchtower 
Today’s article at The Catholic Thing points out how we continue to struggle to understand God as we ought. We keep slipping back into old heresies.
https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2018/09/07/old-heresies-never-die/
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Whois “we”and who slips back into heresy? The one thing you have to keep in minds is that all the people mentioned in that article are unsaved. The unsaved can and do believe anything and everything. They didn’t slip back into heresy, they always believed falsehoods. Heresy is w ord I don’t like. It seems to be a catholic invention to vilify anyone who doesn’t dance to their tune. But look at who is calling someone a heretic.A religious system that burned people to death for no reason at all and turned the orphaned children into the streets after confiscating their home. Ive been called a heretic, that’s why ive included it in my name. Funny…the same people that call me a heretic also believe they can pay for their own sins. Lucky for the CC,….they collect the payments.
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. . . and all of this from a man who accepted a new gospel from a demon that appeared as an angel of light to lead you to attack and to hate the Church (the very Bride of Christ) that was established by Our Lord Himself. That is really all I need to know about you Bosco . . . it says it all.
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Well, no movie style appearances of angels of light happened to me. No voices, no bells ringing. My eyes were opened and I could see. That’s all I know.
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. . . and you best get some treatment for those itching ears of yours. I’m sure its driving you crazy. So crazy, in fact, that you listen to yourself just like those who do automatic writing from some spirit. You and Helen Schucman would have a lot in common.
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If iknew who Helen Schuman was, i would know if I was to be happy or angry.
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I do think of our faith as a lifelong journey of getting to know God, and getting to see the world as He does. We get brainwashed by our experiences and the desires of our hearts; there is much to learn, and much to unlearn.
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Yes, life is a process for most of us. Few us find a fullness of faith at a young age or by an immediate grace such as the conversion of Paul: but there are some saints that did just that . . . holy beyond their years.
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We also have the issue of finding a church that is right for us at a given time and learning to take responsibility for the things that are our own. No one can read Scripture for me – I have to set aside my own time for that, and so on for prayer and other things.
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I found it exactly the opposite once I read the arguments against what I held on my own. Then it was a matter of letting go: abandoning oneself to what I deem to be Divine Providence. Life becomes easier at that point; it is a matter of obedience and steadfastness to the faith and the promises of Christ. So hope replaces despair even in the midst of a great Crisis like we see today. The enemy has entered the gate and I can either run away or stay and fight. Obedience and abandonment to the promise that Christ will never abandon us leaves me no option but to stay and fight with whatever grace God wants to give to me. He has a job for each of us . . . and we usually don’t know what that is until it is thrust on our shoulders.
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I have an inkling of my own contributions – I think over time we get some sense of the things we are meant for and the things we are not. Of course I’m open to God using me however He sees fit, but self-awareness can be valuable when thinking about vocations etc. When I was a child a wanted to be a priest, but I am not that person anymore.
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I lost jobs and was placed in places that I had no desire to go. And yet I found converts and that made the poor pay and poor jobs worth every minute. Most have become very devout. I would have never seen it . . . I was led.
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I remind myself of that principle when I find myself in those situations. I may be carnally unhappy – poor working conditions, etc – but objectively I have contributed something by broaching the subject of Christ with people who might otherwise not hear. And any time I was able to show Christlikeness through kindness or some other attribute, I hope that it prompted people to think about Him and the message of the Gospel. Still, we don’t always know what seeds we are sowing, and we cannot compel people to accept the Gospel.
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True enough. Live the Gospels simply and and faithfully and God takes it from there.
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God is saying to us, look at Jesus
Jesus says,dont just look, open the door and let him in and he will sup with you and you with him.
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. . . and look at the depraved, corrupted faith that you fallen into. If you won’t listen to the Church (the Mystical Body of Christ that is the bulwark and foundation of Truth) but have taken up arms against Him as He attempts the salvation of as many souls as possible, what does that make you? I’ll tell you. An enemy of Christ.
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Good brother scoop, Jesus isn’t gritting his teeth and attempting to save souls. He knows who the saved are from the foundation of the earth. Its all there in scripture. Hasn’t your bulwark and foundation of the truth told you that yet?
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He knows . . . but you don’t. Best listen to Him (His Mystical Body was put here for that reason so that we would not be left as orphans) so that He sees fit to write your name in the Book of Life.
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Sorry, but I don’t want to get near your mystical body. They might try to slip a mystical body up my mystical body. Know what i mean…jelly bean
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