The Fifth Sunday
of Lent (A)
Dear
brothers and sisters,
Today, we hear Martha say to Jesus, “Lord,
if you had been here…” (John 11:21). Are these not the same sort of words we
want to say to Jesus as well? Do we not also cry out, “Lord, if you had been
here…”? But whereas we might be tempted to use such words as a rebuke of the
Lord, Martha intends no such thing. We know this is the case because she adds, “But
even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you” (John 11:21).
Her phrase, “Lord if you had been here…” is not one of blame, but one of trust
in the power of the Lord Jesus. As it was with her, so must it be with us: we
must always speak to the Lord in hope born of faith.
Martha knew well the words of the
Psalmist: “I trust in the Lord; my soul trusts in his word. More than sentinels
wait for the dawn, let Israel wait for the Lord” (Psalm 130:5-6). When she and
her sister Mary sent word to Jesus about Lazarus’ illness, Martha’s message was
simple: “Master, the one you love is ill” (John 11:3). They did not ask Jesus
to come; they did not beg him to come; they did not command him to come; they
simply informed him. Why?
We so often seek to tell Jesus just
how to solve our problems and the hardships of life; “Lord, if you had been
here,” we say, “you could have done this or that.” But this is not how the
women speak to Jesus; why did they not do so?
"These women said nothing like this,” said Saint Augustine, “but only, ‘Lord,
behold, he whom you love is ill' - as if to say: It is enough that you know.
For you are not one that loves and then abandons."[1]
Because she knew that Jesus never abandons those whom he loves, Martha did not tell Jesus what to do, but
instead waited for him to act; she waited in hope born of faith.
We see Jesus’ love for Lazarus in the
brief but poignant words: “And Jesus wept” (John 5:35). Saint Bonaventure tells
us that Jesus’ “compassion was a sign of his sorrow, and his sorrow was a sign
of his love.”[2] Even
those around Jesus saw his love in those sacred tears, which is why they said, “See
how he loved him” (John 5:36). In these present days in which we are seemingly surrounded
by sadness, we like to think that we should not cry, that we should not weep,
that we need to be strong for others. Jesus, however, showed the strength of
his love through his tears. Perhaps it was these very tears that led J.R.R.
Tolkien to put this counsel on the lips of Gandalf the White as he boarded the white
ship at the Grey Havens to leave Middle-earth: “I will not say: Do not weep;
for not all tears are an evil.”[3]
Indeed, Saint Augustine asks, “Why did Christ weep except to teach us to weep?”[4]
How many tears have we shed in these past many
days, tears for ourselves, for our families, for our friends, for strangers?
How many tears have we shed as we have cried out to Jesus, “Lord, if you had
been here…”? How many more tears will we shed in the coming weeks? How many
tears have been shed, and will be shed, because we do not have ready access to
the Sacraments? How many tears have been shed, and will be shed, by priests who
cannot be as close to our flocks as we would like? How many tears? Lord, if you
had been here…
In the coming days, Mother Church invites
us to unite ourselves ever more closely to the Passion of the Lord Jesus so we
might understand more deeply that “with the Lord there is mercy and fullness of
redemption” (Psalm 130:7). We will be invited to contemplate the tremendous compassion
Christ Jesus demonstrated for us not only in his tears, but especially and
above all in his willing acceptance of the Cross for our salvation. From the
Cross, we will hear him call out to us, “I have promised, and I will do it. I
will open your graves and have you rise from them” (Ezekiel 37:14, 13).
This past Friday, the Holy Father Pope
Francis reminded us of what is most important in these days: “Embracing the
Lord in order to embrace hope: that is the strength of faith, which frees us
from fear and gives us hope.”[5]
As we, then, turn our gaze ever more attentively to the Cross of Christ, let us
cry out to him, saying, “Master, the people you love are hurting.” With hope
born of faith, let us wait for the Lord, trusting him to do what he will, for he
is not one that loves and then abandons. Amen.
[1] Saint Augustine of Hippo, Tractates on the Gospel of John, 49.5. In Ancient
Christian Commentary on Scripture: New Testament Vol. IVb: John 11-21 (Downers
Grove, Illinois: Inter Varsity Press, 2007), 3.
[2] Saint Bonaventure, Commentary
on the Gospel of John, 11:35 (Saint Bonaventure, New York: Franciscan
Institute Publications, 2007), 613.
[3] J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of
the King: Being the Third Part of The Lord of the Rings (New York:
Houghton Mifflin Company, 1994), 1007.
[4] Saint Augustine of Hippo, Tractates
on the Gospel of John, 49.19. In Ancient
Christian Commentary on Scripture: New Testament Vol. IVb: John 11-21, 3.
[5] Pope Francis, Homily at the
Extraordinary Moment of Prayer, 27 March 2020.
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