“We’d Like to See Jesus” (Lent 5)

March 29th, 2009 Posted in writing

That’s what some Greeks said to the apostles, as related in the gospel reading for the fifth Sunday of Lent. They may have been the first to voice the desire to see Jesus, but they certainly haven’t been the last.

Isn’t seeing Jesus precisely what non-Christians want the church to help them do? Don’t they want to see Jesus in how we Christians live, in the way we treat one another, in the hope-filled way we engage with society and its problems, in the way we enter into respectful dialogue with those of other faiths or none, and in the way we reach out in generous service to those in need?

And, to be honest, don’t we Christians want to see Jesus, too? Don’t we long to see Jesus, not just witness endless wrangling between “conservatives” and “liberals”? Don’t we desire to see Jesus in our liturgies, hear him in the preaching at Mass, and see him in the lives (and life-styles) of those in church leadership? Above all, don’t we want the church to help us see Jesus in times of doubt, sickness, suffering, and death?

This fifth week of Lent, let’s think about our desire to see Jesus and the challenge we have to make him visible to those around us.

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