On this Fifth Sunday of Easter, the Liturgy takes up chapter fourteen of the Gospel of John, which is rich in challenging themes.

To Philip’s question: «Show us the Father» (Jn 14:8–9), Jesus responds by asking for faith in the profound unity between the Son and the Father, and vice versa, at least as evidenced by the very works that bear ample witness to this.

In the Franciscan Sources, the Poor Man translates this cry into real life, for as a son he did not fear becoming defiled by frequenting the cultural and existential peripheries.

For the Poor Man of Assisi, the disciple’s question to Jesus finds its most comprehensive answer in contemplating His Presence in those dispossessed and cast aside by society.

In the forgotten and marginalised, there the Father was revealed, and the Son with Him.

Indeed, the Sources highlight all this in Francis’s austere experience.

“Then, being a lover of every form of humility, he went to live among the lepers, staying with them and serving them all with the utmost care. 

He washed their feet, bandaged their sores, removed the scabs from their wounds and cleaned them of their pus.

Driven by admirable devotion, he even kissed their festering sores, he who would soon become the Good Samaritan of the Gospel” (FF 1045).

The Little One saw and embraced the Face of God in the Epiphany of the lepers!

Grant us, Lord, your Holy Spirit to rediscover each person’s journey, in the fullness of boundless being. Amen!

«Believe me: I am in the Father and the Father is in me. If not, believe because of the works themselves» (Jn 14:11)

5th Sunday in Easter A  (Jn 14:1-12)