Memorial of Saint Athanasius, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

 Lectionary: 284

“If you know me, then you will also know my Father.
From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
Philip said to Jesus,
“Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.”
Jesus said to him, “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.

Whatever men might expect of God, they might not suppose that He is familiar, or that He should have a human face like that of Jesus. God is other. We cannot even say, "God is a thing." since He created all things. 

Everyone knows that; but we don't want God to be other in such a way that we recognize our own otherness in Him. And so, when God comes before us as a man, as the son of a woman who lives locally -- that's not acceptable! 

Jesus presents himself as a man who knows God and comes from God. But if the world wants anything from him, he should only stand between men and God; they want that safe distance from the place where Jesus represents them if God should have something to say. He will speak for them to God, should they want to reply. 

Perhaps they remember how Moses stood before God like that: 

Now as all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the blast of the shofar and the mountain smoking, they became afraid and trembled. So they took up a position farther away and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we shall die.”

Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid, for God has come only to test you and put the fear of him upon you so you do not sin.”

So the people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the dark cloud where God was. (Exodus 20:18-21)

However, Jesus offers and expects more for his disciples. Where Philip might be content to let Jesus reveal the Father to them, the Lord insists that we should see the Father in Him. In Jesus, our God is that familiar! As he will explain to them in the same Gospel, “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him."

Today the Church celebrates, Saint Athanasius, the bishop who promoted and fiercely defended the doctrine of the Holy Trinity against the Arian heresy. He saw the peril of that false belief, and the easy compromise it made with human expectations. Many would still prefer that Jesus be "just a man," as the Magdalene character sang in Jesus Christ Superstar:

I don't know how to take this 

I don't see why he moves me

He's a man, he's just a man

And I've had so many men before

In very many ways

He's just one more.

If we don't know how to love him, it's because we don't know how to accept the love of the Son of God among those who stand close to us, who are perfectly human, satisfying, wholesome, consuming, beautiful, and divine.