By Shanborlang Mawrie, CSC –
Readings: Acts 13:44-52: Jn 14:7-14
In the Acts of the Apostles, we see how Paul and Barnabas spoke out fearlessly when they experienced risen Christ in their lives. This is how people who experience Christ could touch and transform lives, without any fear, even in times of acute challenge and rejection.
Jesus says “If you know me, you will know the Father also” (Jn 14:7). To know Jesus is to know the Father and from this we understand that Jesus is one with his Father. The question for each of us to answer is “How can we maintain that oneness with Christ?”
In the Bible the word “to know” a person is not only an intellectual power of understanding, it is not only the work of mind but it is also the experience of the presence of the person in one’s life. By this Jesus reveals the depth meaning of the relationship between father and son.
“Knowing” is an affair of the heart that touches one’s life and the life of others. This knowledge is of mutual love, this is not simply the knowledge of head but to know God deeply and experience God profoundly. God acts and reveals himself to us in many ways and means. At times we do not realize that Jesus is with us but search for him elsewhere except within ourselves like Philip who had been with Jesus but did not know him personally.
This could happen many times in our lives and we need to be conscious of this fact in our daily prayer. Being born and brought up in the Catholic faith does not necessarily allow us to know Jesus better. Knowing Jesus means to experience him, in whatever we speak and do. The more we know the person of Jesus the more will be our love for him. We are invited to enter into the mysteries of the life of a divine person. Do I know Jesus? Do my works reveal the work of Jesus? How do we nourish our experience and love for Jesus? Our experience and love for Christ cannot remain static; it must grow like the incense that gives the fragrance.