IT IS CLEAR HERE that some of the disciples still had not entered the divine truth to realize the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father, one being and one word. Christ’s speech is derived, with no lapse in time, from what the Father says.

From unity in word Christ moves to self knowledge, for he who knows the Son, knows the Father also. So he who sees the Son, sees the Father at the same time, for they are not two but one in the divine mystery which cannot be quantified, divided or bound in time. The Father and Son are one from eternity past to eternity future. What the reader must realize is that the divinity is not revealed to the human eye; it is an existence beyond existence, seen only by faith and truth, which one can only attain if God gives him the ability to see by faith that believes the truth. The Father and Son are one, but their unity is not in quantity because together they are one existence only. The one to whom the vision is revealed sees in it the Father and the Son undivided and with nothing between them. He sees the Father as he sees the Son with the exalted divine vision, unlimited and unseen.

Here Christ rebukes Philip that he wants to see the Father alone, separated from the Son. Within the divinity this is impossible because the one who sees the Son sees the Father at the same time. This is why when the Son took on flesh and became a man, one of his tasks was to immediately begin to declare the Father in which he exists, and so it was. All the words and works of Christ were the words and works of the Father. This is what Christ declared over and over, that he does what he hears from the Father. What he sees he declares, and he neither says nor does anything from himself.1 This is difficult for the human mind to imagine or comprehend, which is the case because the sayings and works of Christ which are also the Fathers are said and done from a divine source that is not seen or heard except by faith in Christ the incarnate Word. Thanks to the mediation of the incarnated Christ the exalted sayings of the Father which by themselves cannot be seen or heard are incarnated so they can be seen and heard. This is why those who heard Christ and saw the miracles did not believe they were done by God because it was a man like them who spoke and did them, but this is why the Son of God took on flesh, to bring to man the divine comprehensions and divine works which are considered spoken by and heard from the Father, though they are enunciated and performed by the Son. This means the sayings and works are 100% prompted by God and true, but are difficult for a human to believe through the intellect. Christ speaks of this when he says these things are revealed to children and infants but hidden “from the wise and learned.”2

This is why Christ calls his hearers to believe first in him before believing in what he says and does, in order to realize they are done by God.

This difficult truth is clarified in the story of Samuel the prophet when he was a child. As he was sleeping in the temple God spoke and called out to him, “Samuel, Samuel.” He thought it was Eli the priest calling for him though it was not the priest Eli who had spoken. When Samuel realized this he answered God, and God began to speak directly to Samuel and not through Eli.3 The voice of God was sent to Samuel’s heart, not through his ears, because it was a heavenly voice.

July 28, 2005

¹ See John 5:19.

² Luke 10:21.

³ See 1Sam 3.  

||    The Orthodox Faith (Dogma)    ||    Family and Youth    ||    Sermons    ||    Bible Study    ||    Devotional    ||    Spirituals    ||    Fasts & Feasts    ||    Coptics    ||    Religious Education    ||    Monasticism    ||    Seasons    ||    Missiology    ||    Ethics    ||    Ecumenical Relations    ||    Church Music    ||    Pentecost    ||    Miscellaneous    ||    Saints    ||    Church History    ||    Pope Shenouda    ||    Patrology    ||    Canon Law    ||    Lent    ||    Pastoral Theology    ||    Father Matta    ||    Bibles    ||    Iconography    ||    Liturgics    ||    Orthodox Biblical topics     ||    Orthodox articles    ||    St Chrysostom    ||   

||    Pope Shenouda    ||    Father Matta    ||    Bishop Mattaous    ||    Fr. Tadros Malaty    ||    Bishop Moussa    ||    Bishop Alexander    ||    Habib Gerguis    ||    Bishop Angealos    ||    Metropolitan Bishoy    ||

||    Prayer of the First Hour    ||    Third Hour    ||    Sixth Hour    ||    Ninth Hour    ||    Vespers (Eleventh Hour)    ||    Compline (Twelfth Hour)    ||    The First Watch of the midnight prayers    ||    The Second Watch of the midnight prayers    ||    The Third Watch of the midnight prayers    ||    The Prayer of the Veil    ||    Various Prayers from the Agbia    ||    Synaxarium