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.
