Download Subtitles for Homily: Fifth Sunday of Lent 2023

a man was ill these haunting words that start this gospel they just simply State a man was ill we don't yet know who that guy is we don't know what the illness is but it just comes out of nowhere like a cold open a man was ill and then we learned that this was Lazarus a good friend of Jesus and as Jesus hears that this man is ill he doesn't Rush white right away to go to his side think it probably took a few days for the message to get to Jesus and then Jesus stayed there for a few more days and then it would taken him and his disciples a few days to get back to Martha and Mary and lazarus's house and so he let almost a good week go by before he responded to the illness he let Lazarus suffer and he let Lazarus die and that seems strange to us certainly seems strange to Martha and Mary when Jesus showed up both of them say to him each at their own turn if you would have been here my brother would not have died you can almost hear the the hurt in their voice the jab to him the lashing out if you would have been here he would not have died but it's your fault that he died because you weren't here that's almost what we hear underneath their voices but this Story of Lazarus Falls in line with the two that we've already heard this Lenten season in these last weeks of Lent if you recall two weeks ago Jesus encountered the woman at the well and as he encountered that woman here was a foreigner and an outcast a sinner and he slowly brought her to Faith there was a journey that she had to go through in conversation with him and in that conversation and in wrestling with him she came to Faith and she brought other people to Faith so that they wanted to go find Jesus and make their life with him and then last week we encountered the man born blind again A Journey of Faith Jesus healed a man who didn't know who Jesus was and then when he was questioned he thought he was a prophet until finally he realized aha this is the messiah the man went through a process a journey to coming to know who Jesus was as the Messiah Jesus allows us to go on a journey and he allowed Lazarus to go on the journey because that Samaritan woman if you recall she was us we were the person in sin we were the person Outcast we were the person whose life was not where it should be who wanted more we were the man born blind we were people not of faith we didn't see clearly and then finally we come to know who Jesus is and we are the man who is sick a man lay ill that's you that's me the gospel begins this way because it's not just Lazarus but it is the human race it is us because in original sin we lost our relationship with God and we lost our spiritual health and now each of us are born into that broken world and into that broken humanity and so there has to be that first recognition if we're going to find Healing the first thing out of our mouths has to be I am sick I need to be healed I need the Lord to save me he cannot save me he cannot bring me to a new place until I admit that I am sick until I let him come into my life a man lay ill that's us we are sick in our sin and we are sick with the Brokenness of the world around us and we need the Savior desperately but he lets us be in the sickness he lets us persist in that he lets us experience what it means to be separated from God in other words he lets us to experience the consequences of sin to some degree he allows us to know what sin is so that we might choose not to sin that we might turn away from sin he allows us to go through that not because he wants us to experience sin that he wants us to experience death for goodness sakes we see him shed tears today because he is so broken about this death but he allows it it is what we call God's permissive will he allows it for our good this sickness will not end in final death Jesus is very clear that he's going to use this sickness as a way to bring people to Greater faith to let us go through the Journey strengthens our faith and I think it's what any good parent would do any good parent allows his or her child to experience the consequences of their actions both good and bad to reward and lift up what is good but to experience the hardship or the punishment of a bad choice because without that without knowing that my actions have consequences then I don't have any reason to avoid them because someone's just going to take it away I can do whatever I want and Mom and Dad's going to sweep in and make it better they're going to take the consequences away from me there it's the presumption of God's mercy that I presume that someone else is going to deal with this for me and I bear no responsibility but God lets us experience the responsibility not because he hates us or is angry with us but because he loves us and he loves us so much that he wants to join us to himself this image struck me this past Friday when I was making the Stations of the Cross at six o'clock and we were using Reflections this week from venerable Fulton Sheen and in his Reflections The Sixth Station Veronica wiping the face of Jesus pointed out to us that in Fulton Sheen's Reflections that what image did Jesus leave on the cloth but the image of a broken suffering man and the reflection then that Sheen gave us was that there is no other way that you and I can be like Jesus we cannot be like Jesus in his Divine royalty we cannot be like Jesus in the glories of his birth when Angels sang to the Shepherds we cannot be like Jesus in his transfigured Humanity when his face Shone out and his clothes were brilliant we cannot be like Jesus in his wondrous Miracles the only way you and I can be like Jesus is through suffering by taking up our cross and following him that is the only way you and I can be like Jesus and he lets those he loves participate in his suffering his mother whom he loved most of all he allowed her to share the deepest and most Grievous pains under the cross he allowed her to suffer greatly for the great blessings that report upon her and the reason he does this again is not to punish us but to join us to himself that he is going to save the world and he is going to take away the sin but he wants us to be with him in that he wants us to participate in the taking away of sin in the remaking of this world you and I get to do that and so Jesus allows Lazarus to be sick and to die and I think for this reason and this is important he allows us to experience that even death to prove that he is stronger than death that he possesses life in himself and he can conquer even death and he allows us to go through these things as if to say to us there is something worse than getting sick there is something worse than losing a job there is something worse than an accident that you've encountered there's something worse than a disease that you've contracted there's something worse than even dying there's something worse than being poor and that is to sin to be in sin and to experience hell that is worse you can go through all of these other things the Lord says and I will rescue you from them I am the resurrection I will conquer those I want to prove and show you that there is something worse than all of that so it's okay to be poor it's okay to be sick it's okay to to suffer it's okay to go through that because none of that lasts sin and hell can last forever that is what what is worse Jesus comes in to say experience the suffering of the world and let me raise you on the last day this sickness will not end in Eternal death for I am the resurrection and the life and this is the great joy that these last weeks of Lent bring to us even as we near the very death of Jesus himself we know he is greater than all of that so whatever suffering or trial or Journey you are going through like the woman at the well like the man born blind like Lazarus himself know that the Lord has not abandoned you but he allows us to go through those things because he's greater than greater than them and he wants us to be with him in his suffering it's the only way you and I can be like Jesus and so as we do that as we go through the death and the grave we are confident that we will rise and experience his resurrection so do not be afraid for the Lord is with you and he will not let you die eternally if only you let him