Daily Reading for May 1 • Saint Philip and Saint James, Apostles
I am the Way and the Truth and the Life; no man comes to the Father but through me. If you know me, you know my Father also; and from henceforth you shall know him, and have seen him. Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father, and it will be enough for us. Jesus said to him, Have I been so long with you, and you have not known me, Philip? He that has seen me has seen the Father also. How do you say, Show us the Father? Do you not believe me, that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwells in me, he does his works. Believe me, that I am in the Father, and the Father in me; or else believe for the very works’ sake.
He who is the Way leads us not into by-paths or trackless wastes: he who is the Truth mocks us not with lies; he who is the Life betrays us not into delusions which are death. He himself has chosen these winning names to indicate the methods which he has appointed for our salvation. As the Way, he will guide us to the Truth; the Truth will establish us in the Life. And therefore it is all-important for us to know what is the mysterious mode, which he reveals, of attaining this life. No man comes to the Father but through me. The way to the Father is through the Son. . . .
If you know me, you know my Father also; and from henceforth you shall know him, and have seen him.. . . The novel sound of these words disturbed the apostle Philip. A man is before their eyes; this man avows himself the Son of God, and declares that when they have known him they will know the Father. He tells them that they have seen the Father, and that, because they have seen him, they shall know him hereafter. This truth is too broad for the grasp of weak humanity; their faith fails in the presence of these paradoxes. Christ says that the Father has been seen already and shall now be known; and this, although sight, is knowledge. He says that if the Son has been known, the Father has been known also.
From On the Trinity 7.33-35, by Hilary of Poitiers; found at http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf209.ii.v.ii.vii.html