In the gospel, Jesus said, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” By these words, one would think that Jesus has already given us the way on how to get to know the Father. And yet one wonders why does getting to know him still seem so difficult? When you think about it, this gospel is rather straight forward. To get to the Father, we need to go through the Son. Now, although the source of the next statement is somewhat unorthodox. The meaning of the words still rings true.

Taken from a recurring “urban myth” about Albert Einstein and his atheist teacher “The link between man and God is — FAITH.” And there lies the crux of our seeming inability to accept Jesus’ words at face value. Given that we are such thinking beings, we find it difficult to simply accept that “Jesus is in the Father, as the Father is in the Son.” For faith calls for a kind of believing in something that is not directly backed up by anything that we can truly see, hear, touch, taste or feel. That is why, even in our belief, often there lies a part of us that stays unbelieving at times. It is that small part that causes the greatest gulf between man and God. So what do we do to bridge that gap?

We believe in Jesus and in God the Father, even in the midst of their seeming intangibility. We believe, because we CHOOSE to believe. Reason and logic be forgotten, we choose to believe because in God we feel a “wholeness” and a sense of love that sets our minds, our hearts and our spirits at peace.

May we follow the example of the Apostles Sts. Philip and James, even imitating their death.