Today we overhear an exchange between Jesus and Phillip who asks Jesus to show the Father to the disciples. Jesus replies that in seeing Him, they are in fact seeing the Father. Jesus goes on to explain that in hearing His words, in observing the works of mercy and the healing He performs, they are seeing the Father at work. The word ‘work’ appears three times in our passage today. It signifies not only a particular action, but a visible sign and expression of the very nature of the one who performs it. In the words and works that Jesus performed, we see a God revealing Himself as the God of life, justice, mercy and compassion.

What is yet more remarkable is the fact that Jesus tells us that we, if we remain in Him, will do greater works than even Jesus did during His ministry! Yes, how can this be? When we consider the short span of Jesus' own ministry, we recognise He was limited to a very small corner of this world in a particular time and place. He only touched the lives of very few people during His ministry. We, however, as the Body of Christ in history, have reached out to touch people of every generation and land. Our first reading, which continues to follow the journey of St Paul as he preaches the Gospel to both Jews and Gentiles, offers us an example of how the work of Jesus was carried on and continues to be carried on.