In each of our lives there are people who have left their imprint on us. It may be something they said or did, the values they gave us, the example they set. They marked our life in ways that continue to influence and guide us whether they live down the street, across the country, or have passed on to the next world. Let me give you a few examples of what I mean.

For as long as I can remember I’ve opened the car door for Cyndy whether she’s the driver or passenger. I’m pretty sure that came from my dad. The summer before I began the fourth grade he went to Viet Nam. At the airport on the day he left he told me that I was the man of the house and to take care of my mom and sister. I opened the car door for my mom all year while he was gone. At one level I was just trying to do what he told me to do but at a deeper level I was keeping and making my dad present. 

I know that watching Fr. Kelly, one of my spiritual mentors, celebrate the eucharist with simplicity, beauty, and deep presence has influenced how I celebrate the eucharist. I’ve copied his cadence and some of his gestures. I do what I saw him do. He died in 2014 but I often feel him with me when I celebrate the eucharist. 

David is my best friend and spiritual director. I admire and have been deeply formed by his wisdom and commitment to unconditional love, unconditional acceptance, and unconditional forgiveness. Sometimes I’ll call him when I’ve run into a tough situation in my life or priesthood. Other times I ask myself, What would David do? I hear his voice. I hear him speak about expanding, enlarging, and deepening, and I feel his presence. 

Who are those people for you? Who has left her or his imprint on you and what keeps you connected to them? How do you experience their presence in your life? How do you continue the story of their life in this world?  

I think we all ask those kind of questions when a loved one dies, when a dear friend or mentor moves away, when one who used to stand beside us is no longer there. I think they’re the kind of questions Jesus is addressing in today’s gospel (John 15:9-17). 

Last week’s gospel (John 15:1-8) and today’s gospel both occur on the evening of the last supper. “Jesus [knows] that his hour [has] come to depart this world” (John 13:1) and he tells the disciples, “I am with you only a little longer” (John 13:33). Thomas is already feeling Jesus’ absence and asks, “How can we know the way?” 

In both gospels Jesus is talking about how the disciples can maintain a connection to him. In both gospels bearing fruit is the image Jesus uses for that connection or relationship.

Last week Jesus talked about letting go, pruning and cutting away whatever does not contribute to a fruitful and flourishing relationship. This week Jesus focuses on maintaining connection and fruitfulness through obedience to his commandments. 

“If you keep my commandments you will abide in my love.” “Love one another as I have loved you.” “You are my friends if you do what I command you.”

I think that is less about being good or obeying rules and more about continuing the story of Jesus’ life and presence in our lives and the world. It’s as if Jesus is telling us to take on his values, concerns, and priorities as our own. We may not be able to see, touch, or hold Jesus but we can still hold and carry what mattered most to him (Hollis, Swamplands, 44) and in so doing he is made present.

That’s what I was getting at with my three examples of people whose values and presence I carry within myself and offer to others. I think that’s what Jesus is telling us in today’s gospel. He’s asking us to make him present to the world. 

“We honor best those we have lost by making their contribution to our lives conscious, living with that value deliberately, and incorporating that value in the on-going life enterprise.” (Hollis, Swamplands, 45)

What if that’s Easter life? Maybe that’s what resurrection looks like for Jesus, our loved ones who have died, and friends we see no longer. Maybe their resurrection is revealed in the ways we continue to hold and express something of their lives. Maybe that’s what Jesus is talking about when he says, “I appointed you to go and bear fruit.”

In what ways has Jesus imprinted his life on yours? How are his values, concerns and priorities being expressed in your life today? Are they showing up in your relationships? Do they influence your social and political opinions, how you vote, and to what you give your time, money, and energy? Do they determine what you say and do, how you see and relate to others, your prayers and hopes for the world and others? 

Those are big questions but maybe they are lived and answered in small ordinary ways. Let me give you one last example.

Last week I met with a young woman whose daughter survived the Robb School shooting but was injured. I have visited with and assisted her several times over the past couple of years. Last week she was wearing an elastic bracelet with her daughter’s name on it. At the end of our meeting she took off her bracelet and said, “I want you to have this.” 

What do you think she was saying to me? Was she thanking me? Maybe, but I think it was more than that. Was she asking me to wear that bracelet? Maybe, but I think it was more than that too. I think she was asking me to hold and carry her daughter with the same love, tenderness, and concern as she does. 

Sort of sounds like Jesus in today’s gospel, doesn’t it? What if Jesus’ commandments are like a red elastic bracelet with someone’s name on it?  

“I am giving you these commands,” he says, “so that you may love one another.” 

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Image Credit: By CMEarnest – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.