Ez. 37:12-14; Ps. 130:1-8; Rom. 8:8-11; Jn.11:1-45
“And Jesus wept.” Jesus wept “perturbed and deeply troubled” not for the death of Lazarus but for the lack of faith and belief in him as he tells Martha, “Whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live.” Jesus’ purpose and desire for his disciples and all his followers is for us to believe in him. Do we believe? And if we say, “we believe” is our faith built on a strong foundation based on his revelation of truth or does it rest only on a God as we define him by our choice or his will?
Notice that it is Thomas who will later after the death of Jesus refuse to believe in his resurrection. In the gospel today, it is Thomas who speaks to the disciples and says, “Let us go to die with him.” Thomas believed in only the mortal death to come and Jesus is preparing his disciples for the resurrection to come by raising Lazarus from the dead. Having been present to see Lazarus rise from the dead, Thomas would still refuse to believe in the resurrection of Jesus unless he put his finger into his side. This is the hardness of heart of humanity for which Jesus wept and weeps to this day.
In contrast to Thomas is the faith of Martha. Martha knows her brother has died but still believes in Jesus to say “whatever you ask of God, God will give you.” Martha had total trust in Jesus and in the “resurrection on the last day”. What separates Thomas from Martha is love. Thomas was ready to go die with Jesus but this came from his pride. He was part of the team that as men we bond together ready to fight for the team but do we understand the greater cause? Our battle is not for this world but for the one to come. Martha was humbled by her love of Jesus. Her hopes rested on the resurrection to come but Martha already believed in the Son of God as the Christ who has come into the world. Thomas is ready to die for the honor of the good fight.
God bless women, where would we men be without them. This week we had our parish mission with Fa. Joe Villalon leading us. Women outnumbered men at least three to one. Have a boxing match or wrestling on prime time and men outnumber women at least ten to one. Fa. Joe contrasted the difference between “ego drama and Theo drama”. Ego drama is life centered on ourselves and how everything going around us impacts us. Theo drama is God centered life and how everything going on around us impacts the salvation of the world as we are invited to enter into this Theo drama and be a part of salvation history. We have been born for this with a God given purpose and too many are missing the call stuck in their own ego drama.
Men of God there is a battle going on in this world that we are called to fight and it is for the souls of those we love. Are we ready to die to ourselves for them? Men cannot be sitting at camp back home while the women show up to training camp at Church ready to grow spiritual muscle, to learn how the enemy comes to attack us and how we as Church do battle with the power of the Holy Spirit to guard those we love and to call others to join us. Ignorance of Christ is no excuse if we say we believe. Jesus is revealing himself to us in scripture, in the Eucharist, in the teachings of the Church every day but we must answer the call when he says to us “come follow me”.
The Jews who were with Martha remember how Jesus opened the eyes of the blind man. They questioned the power of Jesus to have prevented Lazarus from dying. And Jesus wept “perturbed again” by their lack of faith and he prayed “that they may believe that you (God) sent me”. “Lazarus, come out!” Now remove Lazarus name and place our own name in his place. Tom, Joe, Carmen, Jane come out of the darkness of our unbelief and receive the fullness of the gospel.
Any time and anything we have denied of the gospel, of confession, the sacraments, the Eucharist, even denial of the devil himself is leading us into darkness and death and Jesus wept. We remain in this ego drama of our minds and hearts and in the blindness of sin when we begin to say “I don’t believe in confession, in going to Church, in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist”. Today sadly there are more Catholics in the world who say “I don’t believe” than say “I do believe”. Why?
There are many reasons for lack of faith and while we can look at the world and see how the world seeks to remove God from society we must also look at ourselves and what are we doing in this fight for salvation in our own home. Catechism and evangelization begins in the home if the church is to succeed in the world and today we are losing that fight. Only an examination of conscience can reveal to us not only where we have failed but where God is calling us but we don’t like to go there. We are content with ourselves and the control we mistakenly feel we have over life until we have separated ourselves so far from the Father of life that our lives become unmanageable and we have nowhere to turn but back to the one who gave us the breath of life.
This world is a graveyard of walking dead full of mortality that is in a state of being subject to death by sin “and Jesus wept”. Sin in our lives leads to premature death without the spirit of God. Some are already in the grave of death from mortal sin but not without hope for “with the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption”. It is the Spirit that gives life to our mortal bodies and today we come to receive of this life-giving Spirit through the body and blood of Jesus in the Eucharist. The Church is seeking a Eucharistic revival because only one in three Catholics now believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist and Jesus weeps.
Just as no one had ever witnessed a man born blind regain his sight no one had witnessed a dead man return to life. Jesus’ miracles give witness to the power of faith for those who believe. Where are the miracles of today? Miracles must follow faith and they happen every day “if only the Spirit of God dwells in you”. For those who believe and respond in faith we are alive in Christ and even when we die and depart this mortal body we will never die. We enter the glory of God. Though we were born in sin we have been redeemed by our faith in the cross. We have received the Spirit of righteousness and Jesus rejoices. Let us rejoice in Jesus.
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