Knowledge and Commitment (Feast of SS Philip and James, May 3, 2021)

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A small child was placed before a mirror and upon seeing himself, he asked the father, “Who is that?” And the father replied that “he is the one”. And the next question was: “Why am I two?” And the father said that the mirror has a reflective power that enables it to capture anything before it. The small boy just behaved as if he didn’t hear what the father was saying and headed towards the mirror just to touch it and be sure.


The boy’s attitude reflects our human nature. God created us and gave us the intellect or the cognitive faculty to unravel and understand things that may appear to be incomprehensible to us. There is a natural instinct in us to unravel the mysterious, to uncover what appears to be hidden and to touch, feel, taste, see and hear in order to understand and believe. 


The disciples of Jesus, being human as we are, seemed to have struggled to understand who Jesus really was. It sounded a bit mysterious and incomprehensible to Philip when Jesus was talking about his relationship with God the Father (cf. Jn. 14:6-14). Dissatisfied with what Jesus had said, Philip requested, “Lord, show us the Father and we will be satisfied”. Jesus responded: “To have seen me is to have seen the Father”. We don’t know how much this response helped Philip in his quest to know more about Jesus and the Father. But one thing is sure: Philip lived and died as a committed ambassador of the good news of Jesus Christ. There is no real commitment without faith. But faith must spring from what is seen, heard or known.


In our time, it is no longer a question of “how much of Jesus do you know?” We presume that many must have heard of Jesus and are proud to associate with Him. “TO HEAR ABOUT” and “TO KNOW” are two different things. Christianity is way bigger than carrying a Bible around and shouting “Jesus, Jesus!” Knowledge is not emotionalism. It is not fancy. Knowledge is power: it comes with a certain power that is purely transformative. The point is: if I claim that I know Jesus, where is the commitment? To claim to know Jesus with nothing to show for it is pure deception.


May Philip and James intercede for us! 


Prayer:

Lord, that we may truly know You and be truly transformed by our knowledge of You, Amen!


Have a blessed day!



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