In today's readings from Mass, Jesus is speaking to his disciples at the Last Supper. Philip says to him:
Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.
Jesus then says:
Have I been with you so long a time and you still do not know me Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.
It is as though Jesus were saying: I've been showing you the Father for the last three years. If showing you the father were sufficient you would already be satisfied.
Showing us the Father was not enough for the Father or the Son. He underwent his Passion, not so that we could merely see the Father, but so that we might be with him always.
And this is God's desire for us, that we should be with Him always. Not for just a moment, not for a day, a weekend, or for a few months. But always and forever. The Father living in the Son and the Son living in us.
May His desire be ours, so that our Joy may be complete.
There is an excellent article at First Things by Bishop James Conley. He opens by citing a portion of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice.
After quoting from Portia's monologue on Mercy he says :
Shakespeare’s Portia says that mercy can never be forced;
instead, it drops freely, as a gentle rain from heaven. Mercy blesses both the
giver and the receiver, and makes the merciful like God himself.
He refers to and quotes from St Anselm and John Milton, and discusses a couple of false ideas concerning Conscience. He writes:
The first false idea is that conscience is an absolute
source of moral truth. This idea suggests that if we want to act rightly, we
only need to “listen to our conscience.” But our conscience is only effective
when it is formed correctly, when it strengthens us and guides us to live
according to reality and moral truth. The conscience offers no escape from
natural law, or from God’s revelation.
It is an excellent article and you should read it in its' entirety.
