5th Lent. Jesus brings us to life

Bob woke up one Sunday morning and the bed felt so comfortable and he was so tired, he decided he would skip mass. However he heard his Mom knock on the door: “Bob, are you awake?” “Yes” he reluctantly replied. “It’s getting late, you need to get ready to go to church.” She stated. “I am not going.” he said, “I am tired, besides the people there are mean and grumpy, the music is uninspiring, and I don’t like it.” Mom said: “I don’t care, you are the priest, that is your parish, get up and go to mass!”

Years ago in a galaxy far away, in another parish, we brought in a group, at the suggestion of a parishioner, for a Youth Retreat. The group was from Southern California and the parishioner said that they were spirit filled, with teen leaders and adults, and it would be transformative for our kids. An adult leader arrived ahead of the main group to begin prep work, a man of probably about late 50’s into his 60’s. He was excited for us. The main group arrived later in the evening, consisting of the other adults and teens. Apparently though during the journey, this group made some adjustments to the program without consulting the other adult leader. He got angry and refused to participate in anything that they did. In fact he basically spent a day and half hiding and sitting on a cot being Mr. Passive Aggressive. I was not amused.

Adversity will come into our lives. It is simply a fact of life. Events, situations, changes of plans, illnesses, death will happen that do not coincide with our plans, our wishes, our expectations. How we choose to act shows how our faith informs us.

I recently attended a funeral for a woman. She had been diagnosed with cancer over 15 years ago right after becoming a new mother. Her family shared how despite the many years of treatments and dealing with the disease, she remained positive. She remained the caring, fun loving person and a faith filled person that she had always been. This adversity did not win, she did. She won because she remained true to her self and the qualities of life. The cancer never defeated her.

Martha and Mary faced an adversity, a trauma. Their brother has died. Yet, he was more than a brother, as the male of the household he would have been their source of protection, their provider; their link to life. They grieve and they fear; and clearly on Martha’s part there is some anger, anger at Jesus. He could have done something. He had healed others, why not her brother. They believed in Jesus, they had expectations of him. Yet, something seemed to be lacking in their belief in him.

From the beginning Jesus had invited people to follow him; to follow him into a new way of life. He said “Come and See”. It meant that they had to learn to see differently, think differently, act differently. This would not be a mere intellectual exercise, but a more holistic approach. Those disciples were learning, but they still had more to learn. Martha and Mary too, although friends of Jesus and loved by him, still had to learn more.

They believed, as many Jewish people at that time, that there would be a resurrection at the end of time. Jesus corrects them and says he IS the resurrection, present tense; not “will be”. He will bring new life NOW if they, if we, can trust in his words.

The people say “Come and See” to Jesus; to show him the tomb of Lazarus, to show him the adversity and reality of Martha and Mary, and really all of humanity. “Come and see” what we fear and what controls us--death. No wonder Jesus weeps.

Adversity, distress, trauma will happen. It is not God doing it to us; but God certainly is present, in Spirit, to help us walk through it; not around it, but through it.

Adversity will happen at all kinds of levels, from our own plans for a day getting canceled to our lives getting canceled. We may not get the grades we expected or our crush may reject us. We may struggle with illnesses, depression, addiction.

In those moments of distress we are called to faith, to have hope and trust that it can get better. Then we must take action. Take action that reflects those qualities that we have inside as Disciples of Jesus, as Children of God.

We are called to trust and act as Jesus, with forgiveness and mercy, with humility, with kindness, compassion, generosity of spirit. Consider all that Jesus did for others, and in this extreme moment of moments; he healed, he gave compassion and kindness. He even forgave as he hung upon the cross.

This shows us that in our times of troubles we can still love others and let others love us. We can still be kind and generous. We can still forgive too. Clearly we will have our moments when the grief and pain, the misery will be a lot, and we may lash out, or engage in our tears. Okay, we can do that. However we do not have to remain so.

Sometimes I wonder if our youth and young adults know how to manage adversity; especially perceived failures and disappointments. There seems to be so much pressure on them to succeed, or we tell them the lie that they can have anything they desire and want. Yet, when they don’t get what they want, what they desire; when they become disappointed, I hear too much of them harming themselves. I wonder if we have failed them, because we do not show them nor teach them of faith, hope; of a God who brings life!

Jesus was raised from the dead. Jesus was given back to us as a sign of God’s infinite capacity to forgive and love us; of God’s infinite capacity to bring life and desire for us to be alive! In heaven yes, but also Now, in this moment and this life.

We celebrate this reality with each Eucharist; which becomes our hope and our strength when we will be tested, when we will experience hardship. God calls us to in the Eucharist to trust, to have faith; to get up and take at least one step forward.

Take one step forward and forgive, or be kind, or be humble. Take one step forward to accept forgiveness, be generous, merciful, compassionate. Take one step forward and give up control, be more humble. Take one step forward and love again.

We are called now to deepen our faith so that when those times do come, we truly are prepared to meet them head on, and go to love and let ourselves be loved; to continue to do what is good and just; to be truly alive.

We are called NOW to grow in our faith, to understand on a deeper level who Jesus is and HOW he is the resurrection.