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Saturday of the Fourth week of Easter

Commentary of the day
Saint Francis of Assisi (1182-1226), Founder of the Friars Minor
Admonitions, § 1 (trans. ©Classics of Western Spirituality)

"How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? "

The Lord Jesus says to His disciples: “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would also have known my Father; and from now on you will know him and have seen him.” Philip says to him: “Lord, show us the Father and it is enough for us.” Jesus says to him: “Have I been with you for so long a time and you have not known me? Philip, whoever sees me, sees also my Father.” The Father “lives in inaccessible light” , and “God is Spirit” and, “No one has ever seen God”: therefore he cannot be seen except in the Spirit (cf. 1 Tim 6,16; Jn 4,24; Jn 1,18; 6,64). But neither, inasmuch as He is equal to the Father, is the Son seen by anyone other than the Father or other than the Holy Spirit...

Therefore, “O sons of men, how long will you be hard of heart?” (Ps 4,3 Vg) 15. Why do you not recognize the truth and believe in the Son of God? See, daily he humbles himself as when he came from the royal throne (Wsd 18,15) into the womb of the Virgin. Daily he comes to us in humble form; daily he comes down from the bosom of the Father upon the altar in the hands of the priest. And as He appeared to the holy apostles in true flesh, so now He reveals Himself to us in the sacred bread.

And as the apostles saw only his flesh by means of their bodily sight, yet believed him to be God as they contemplated Him with the eyes of faith, so, as we see bread and wine with our bodily eyes, we too are to see and firmly believe them to be his most holy Body and Blood living and true. And in this way the Lord is always with his faithful, as he himself says: “Behold I am with you even to the end of the world” (Mt 28,20).