6th Sunday of Easter, Cycle A - May 10, 2026

 6th Sunday of Easter – A 

May 10, 2026                       8:30am 

Our Lady of Grace Parish, Parkton 

 

“I am already here!”

 

A middle-aged man wrote this in a Catholic newsletter.

 

“I used to imagine God as something far away – distant as the stars, listening but never quite near. Then one quiet Saturday morning, I got out of bed and looked out the window.

 

“There was nothing going on but the day beginning. Just a stillness, but a stillness that felt full instead of empty.

 

“I noticed my own breathing – steady, unearned. Then a thought or voice came, gentle and unforced: ‘I am already here!’ 

 

“I didn’t feel like reaching upward anymore. I felt like noticing inward, like discovering I had never been alone in the first place. 

 

“The distance I thought was there dissolved, not with proof, but with presence. And somehow, that quiet closeness felt more certain than anything else.”       

 

“You are in me and I in you” 

 

That man’s experience echoes, maybe confirms what Jesus says in today’s gospel. 

 

Jesus first promises that he will send us another “Advocate” – the Holy Spirit. And the Spirit will remain with us and be in us.

 

And then Jesus says: “I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you.” So, he is telling us that God is close to us.

 

God is not distant and far away. We don’t have to be working and sweating to be close to him.

 

God is right here, close to us, inside us. Saint Augustine in the year 400 said that God is as close to us as we are to ourselves.

 

Saint Teresa of Avila in the 1500’s said: “Find yourself, and you find God. Find God, and you find yourself.”

 

In other words, God is intimately close to us, one with us. We just need to awaken to this presence and accept God’s closeness.

 

If we do that, there are some remarkable effects on our lives. I want to highlight three of them.   

 

1.   No Longer Alone 

 

First, we are no longer alone.

 

Some studies say that up to 50% of adults in our country experience some degree of loneliness. One study says that 20% of us admit to simply feeling lonely. 

 

Well, spiritually, we have Jesus today assuring us “I will not leave you orphans.” I will not leave you alone.

 

So, we can draw on Jesus’ closeness, his presence, especially through our awareness, through our prayer, and through Holy Communion. These are ways to help us realize that we are not alone, that God, Jesus is with us.    

 

2.   Live out of Relationship

 

And then, with this, we can now live out of this closeness or relationship with Jesus.

 

Our moral decisions are no longer just following commands. Our choices about right and wrong or what to do or not to do are not just obedience to abstract commands.

 

Instead of that, now we are responding to someone who is present to us. We are living out of this closeness with Jesus, with God who is within us. 

 

We choose to do what best reflects this closeness. Love of God and trust in God replace mere obedience as our motivation for what we do or don’t do. 

 

3.   Strength in Suffering

 

Finally, with this closeness with God, we now have a source of strength for the sufferings of life.

 

Our suffering can now be shared rather than just be isolating. We now have a source of perseverance from the One who is with us and who endured much suffering in his life.

 

We can draw on Him for hope in our sufferings. He will not leave us alone even in these times.  

 

So, closeness with God doesn’t remove hardship, but it can help us with it. Disappointments, break-ups, physical sickness, depression, anxiety, the loss of a loved one – we are now not alone in dealing with these.

 

What Will You Do Now? 

 

So, please ask yourself today: do you believe that God is as close to you as Jesus says? 

 

And if you do, what changes can this make in your life – 1) with feelings of loneliness, 2) with your moral motivation, and 3) with your sufferings? There is a great message here today and great opportunities for us.   

 

5th Sunday of Easter, Cycle A - May 3, 2026

 5th Sunday of Easter – A 

May 3, 2026             5:00pm 

Our Lady of Grace Parish, Parkton 

 

“Whoever has seen me…”

 

When you picture God, what comes up in your mind? What word or maybe words would you use to describe God?

 

In today’s gospel, the apostle Philip asks Jesus, “What is God like?” He says to Jesus, “Show us the Father [God], and that will be enough for us.” 

 

And Jesus gives an amazing response: “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” – “...has seen God.” So, if we want to know what God is like, just look at Jesus.

 

This afternoon, I want to share with you what comes up in my mind when I try to picture God. And there is one word that describes this and sums it up for me. 

 

God Is Friend 

 

The word is Friend, spelled with a capital F.

 

God is Friend, my Friend, our Friend. Jesus himself tells us this. 

 

He says: “I no longer call you slaves; I call you my friends.” He is telling us that God is first and foremost our heavenly Friend.

 

I think this is foundational. In my prayer space at home, I have an icon – an inexpensive representation of a sixth century icon or painting. 

 

It portrays two men standing and facing straight ahead, looking at us. The one man, Jesus, has his hand on the shoulder of the other man. 

 

And the inscription at the bottom of this icon says: “I call you my friends.” So, God is our Friend, supporting and taking care of us.

 

God has our back. God is here for us, wanting only what is good for us. 

 

Think of a friend of yours and multiply your good experience with your friend by 1000 times. That still won’t fully measure up to how God is Friend to us.

 

No Longer a Judge

 

In our tradition and in my own life, our image of God has not always been this way.

 

The dominant image of God used to be Judge. The distant heavenly figure whose role was to count our sins and send us to heaven or hell or purgatory! 

 

That was it and, for some, this still is the image of God. I no longer see God as judge in that way. 

 

I do think there will be a judgment, but this will be more like our experience when we are in the presence of someone who is really good. I have had a couple of people in my life like that – their names are Rosalie and Bill. 

 

When I was in their presence, I would become very aware of myself. Their goodness would make me aware of the kind of person I wanted to become. 

 

I would become aware of my strengths and my weaknesses and my need to grow. I think God as judge or judgment is something like this. 

 

Instead of being a cold judge ready to pass a sentence, God in his complete goodness will just gaze at us as a loving Friend. And in that experience, the judgment will happen, but it will be our action as much as God’s action. 

 

 

When someday I meet my Friend face to face, he will be there to open up my heart to him fully. The punishment or better, the pain will be in my letting go of any remaining self-centeredness and antipathy toward others.

 

It will be in my asking for the forgiveness and healing that I may need. That will be our purgatory while our heavenly Friend has his hand on our shoulder, just waiting to welcome us into full friendship with him in our heavenly home.

 

Notice Our Feelings

 

Notice how different our feelings are with knowing God as our Friend and not as our Judge.

 

We are not feeling alone and unloved, not afraid, not stuck in guilt or even shame, not feeling anxious that we will never be good enough. 

 

Instead, with God as Friend, we can feel beloved and cared for, valued and peaceful, confident and hopeful, forgiven and even worthy.

 

What a difference God as Friend makes!  

 

So How Do You See God? 

 

So, today or at least during the week ahead, ask yourself: How do you picture God? 

 

How would you describe God in a word or several words? And if you don’t picture God as Friend, can you begin to move into that?

 

Try to answer this question for yourself. The question is well worth answering.