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Wednesday of the Fifteenth week in Ordinary Time

Commentary of the day
Saint Irenaeus of Lyons (c.130-c.208), Bishop, theologian and martyr
Against the heresies, IV, 6, 4 – 7, 3 (trans. Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1,1885, rev. )

"You have revealed them to the childlike"

The Lord taught us that no one is capable of knowing God, unless they be taught of God; that is, that God cannot be known without God: but that this is the express will of the Father, that God should be known… But the Son, administering all things for the Father, works from the beginning even to the end, and no one can attain the knowledge of God without him. For the Son is the knowledge of the Father… This was the reason why the Lord declared: “No one knows… the Father, save the Son, and those to whom the Son shall reveal him.” For “shall reveal” was said not with reference to the future alone, as though the Word only began to manifest the Father when he was born of Mary, but it applies indifferently throughout all time. For the Son, being present with his own handiwork from the beginning, reveals the Father to all whom the Father wills (cf Rm 1,20), and when he wills, and as he wills. Wherefore, then, in all things, and through all things, there is one God, the Father, and one Word, the Son, and one Spirit, and one salvation to all who believe in Him…

But the Son reveals the Father to all whom he wills to be known; and not without the “good pleasure” of the Father… Therefore the Lord said to his disciples: “I am the way, the truth, and the life and no one comes to the Father but by me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. But from henceforth you have both known him and seen Him” (Jn 14,6-7).