The Lord in their midst

Fifth Sunday of Lent – B

“We would like to see Jesus.” That is the opening request given to the disciples in today’s Gospel by those from the outside of Jesus’s circle of followers. Throughout John’s Gospel, to see and hear Jesus is to know Jesus and to know the Father. By extension, to see and hear Jesus’s followers is to encounter Jesus himself, for, as the Gospel says, where Jesus is, there will his servants be.

We see this intimate unity between Jesus and his disciples (meaning us) foreshadowed in the abundant fruit that his followers will yield if they die to themselves in imitation of Jesus. In Jesus’s prayer before his arrest, we will hear again of the intimate unity between Father and Son and, thus, between Son and those who have received the Spirit of love shared by the Father and Son.

As we near the end of Lent and the time when we must renew our baptismal vows as followers of Jesus and “other Christs,” can it be said of us that Jesus will be seen wherever his servants are? If those from outside the circle of our parish communities listen in to our daily conversations, will they hear Jesus’s words of self-giving love? If they witness our actions in the world, will they see and know the Lord in their midst?

This post was first published in “GIA Quarterly: A Liturgical Music Journal.”

Image credit: Photo by Tegan Mierle on Unsplash.

Read more reflections on the Sunday readings here:

• Restraint and Generosity
• Going Further
• Can we be salt and light?
• Who is advocating for those in need?
• Bonded to Christ’s Mission