In the Gospel, today, we are in the upper room, and Jesus is pouring out his heart to his friends.  This is their last evening together before his passion and death. He is holding nothing back, and Philip senses this. His request is the request of all the holy ones found in the Hebrew Scriptures, but it shows a lack of real knowledge of who Jesus is: “Master show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” Jesus is clearly disappointed in Philip: “Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip?”

Am I like Philip? How long have I been reflecting on the life of Jesus?  Can I say that I really know him? Are we convinced that whoever has seen Jesus has seen the Father?  Jesus is our best glimpse of God. Let us continue to gaze upon Jesus, each day in our prayer, and we will see God.

In some wondrous way, we become what we gaze upon, what we contemplate.

—Fr. Robert Braunreuther, S.J., a Jesuit of the New England province, assists in University Ministry at Loyola University Chicago, where he is also minister of the Arrupe House Jesuit community.