Fr. Phil’s Doers of the Word. 5th Sunday of Lent.
John 11:35 Jesus wept.
When was the last time you wept? Was it because of sadness, anguish, anger, pain, sorrow? Jesus wept. Verse 35 is the shortest in the English Bible. Three times Jesus wept. He wept over the city of Jerusalem and also in the garden of Gethsemane. We weep when loved ones are taken from us. A weeping Christian has hope! We weep because an invisible enemy has driven us from church.
The last great miracle of Jesus. The greatest of all: the illness, death and raising of Lazarus. According to Jesus Himself, the real purpose of the sickness was the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it. This invites a tremendous leap of faith! God allowed this to happen so that Jesus would come and raise Lazarus from the dead.
Think of the victims of the pandemic. Remember: sickness is directly linked with God’s love rather than His anger! Remember! “Whom He loves He chastens.” God’s delays are not His denials. If prayers are not answered immediately, is He teaching us to wait? Might waiting patiently be preparing us for a more marvelous answer later? Is not “God’s appointed time” part of our faith system?
Today many of us are unconsciously identifying with Martha and her imperfect faith. Often in times of sorrow, we talk like Martha. We think that if a drug or vaccine had been discovered, then this loved one would not have died. But all things are in the hands of the Lord, and nothing happens without His permission. Another leap of faith!
Like Martha we don’t know how the Lord will help, but she believed that He would. He will bring good out of this tragedy. “Believe me, I can do great things today,” Jesus seems to be saying.
Meanwhile, as Governor of New York said recently: “Many will get the virus, but few will be in danger. We need to maintain social distance but be spiritually connected.”