What does God ask of us? The first and most important answer to this question is that God wants us to put our faith and trust in Jesus the one sent to us by the Father. This is what we hear in today’s Gospel: “This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.” Before we do any “work” or good deeds or works of love and charity we are asked to trust in Jesus. This faith helps us to see who Jesus truly is, the full revelation of the one true God. Jesus called the earlier apostles, such as Philip, to this faith just as he calls us.
“Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9)
The heart of our Christian faith is that Jesus reveals and shows us the one true God by his words of teaching and his deeds of service and sacrifice. This is what is proclaimed in the Prologue of John’s Gospel: “No one has ever seen God. The only Son, God, who is at the Father’s side, has revealed him.” (John 1:18). Jesus reveals to us the one true God. When we see and encounter Jesus, we see the Father.
Each day we have the opportunity to encounter Jesus as we read and reflect on the Gospel. Whenever Jesus speaks in the Gospel it is the one true God speaking to us. As we hear of Jesus’ compassion for children, the poor, the outcast, and sinners we experience and see the one true God.
What is God like? What does God look like? The simple but profound answer is that God looks like Jesus. He is the image of the one true God so any other image we have of God is really a false image of God. If our image of God is that of a wrathful and angry God, we need to see Jesus. Jesus is not wrathful or angry but loving and compassionate. Today we are asked to do God’s work: “This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.”