Fifth Sunday of Easter

Today's Mass Readings

Possibly the most intimidating thing that Jesus says to us is found in the Sermon on the Mount, (Matthew 5:48). In this verse, Jesus says to us, “You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” That is the RSVCE version. The New America version, that we more commonly use in our lectionaries at Mass is very similar: “So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Here Jesus is telling us we must have the very perfection of God, which to most of us, will seem out of reach. What is so intimidating about this is that he means it: we must become perfect just as God is perfect. Furthermore, we won’t get into heaven until we do.

Fortunately, in today’s Gospel passage, Jesus shows us how we can do this. In response to Philip asking if he will now show them the Father, Jesus responds “[The one} who has seen me has seen the Father.” So in Jesus, we see God the Father in all His perfection, and furthermore, we see God in His perfection in human form. In other words, we see the perfections of God expressed in human life and being. In Jesus Christ, we see a human being living with all of the perfections of God.

So in order for us to be like Jesus in our daily lives, we need to know him. This means we need to get to know him by prayerfully reading the Gospels especially and also the rest of the Sacred Scriptures. We need to stay close to Jesus and meet him daily in our prayer, letting him teach us to know him better, and so be more and more like him.

Reflection by Fr. Aquinas Keusenkothen, OSB