God’s Presence in Jesus!

Wednesday, March 18, 2026

Is 49: 8-15; Jn 5: 17-30

Today’s Gospel highlights how Jesus manifests and becomes His Father’s presence to others.

The Gospel text offers proof that the entire life of Jesus is shaped by one reality: the Father. Hence, even when he is misunderstood and found fault with, Jesus’ actions are expressions of God’s will.

1. Jesus claims, ‘My Father is at work until now, so I am at work.’ For Jesus, the motivation for doing anything is God’s will, not social approval. In anything or everything he does, Jesus radiates radical communion with his Father. Hence, Jesus’ life has to be understood as a response to God’s will. Jesus shows that holiness is not about achieving many things but about doing everything from the right source, who is God Himself. 

2. Again, Jesus claims, ‘The son does only what he sees the Father doing.’ This statement helps us understand Jesus’ healing of the sick on the Sabbath. Hence, in healing people on the Sabbath, Jesus does not violate God’s commandment but fulfils it more profoundly. By doing so, Jesus only actualizes God’s will. This statement shows that there is no contradiction between the Father and the Son. Hence, to know Christ is to know God. 

3. Towards the end, Jesus proclaims, ‘I do not seek my own will, but the will of the one who sent me.’ For Jesus, life is to become a reflection of God’s presence in the world. In whatever he did, Jesus made God visible. This is why Jesus was not merely the Son of God but the very presence of God among people. Jesus’ life is an example that when our actions are rooted in God’s will, we become the signs of God’s presence to others.

Jesus’ life demonstrates that when God becomes the motivation of our lives, even ordinary actions become holy.

Let us pray that we may become a living reflection of God’s presence in the world. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar