It is a human thing to remember the past. We do it in part to understand better who we are now and how we got that way.

That is why remembering is one definition of liturgy. Under God’s impetus we remember what it means to be a follower of Christ today. Especially in this Easter season, the Church is recalling its experience in the weeks after Jesus died and rose again.

Let us pretend that we are the historical disciples of Jesus, calling to mind what happened. It is as if we sit around a memory campfire, telling stories.

Remember when Philip said to Jesus, ‘Just show us the Father and that will be enough for us?’ Of course he was at that very moment seeing Jesus and therefore seeing the Father, but did not know it!

Maybe someone moves closer to the fire and says,

Do you remember the words he said just before his passion and death? That he would send the Spirit of Truth into our hearts! And that we would not be left orphans!

  “Go over it one more time,” Someone else whispers. Bravely, one of them tries to.

  “God the Abba is so much within Jesus that every time we see him we are seeing God.”

Philip nods, reluctantly.

  “Then Jesus said”:

I will be so much within you—yes, you normal people—that when anyone sees you it will be the same thing as seeing me! And of course, since the Father is in me, they will know the Father too!

Philip gulped. “I … I almost have it … maybe … or maybe not. … Please say it another way.”

  “Ok. If I boil it down, this is what I understood of what I remember. Jesus said,

I am going back to the Father, back to the one who sent me. The world will not see me any more. But that doesn’t make me absent from you. I and the Abba will be within you so that your very insides will be at one with my Spirit and the Father’s Spirit.

  “Then he put it very simply:

Who sees me
sees the Father.

Who sees you
sees me.

Philip somehow caught a glimpse of daylight.

At least, we find him in the First Reading running from place to place doing miracles and preaching about the Messiah! As scripture puts it,

With one accord, the crowds paid attention to what was said by Philip, when they heard it, and saw the signs he was doing:

Unclean spirits, crying out in a loud voice,
came out of many possessed people,
and many paralyzed or crippled people were cured.

There was great joy in that city.

Do you also see daylight, at least on some days?

Do you remember to say yes to Christ’s presence within you? Do you touch and receive communion at Mass and let yourself evolve into Christ, in the world today? Is your life an increasing process of saying “yes,” or is there too much “no”? If the latter, read Sunday’s readings again.

Simple? Not really.

Well, maybe it is simple. Just receive and love.