Jesus wept
Sunday Readings for Apr. 10, 2011 (5LentA)
By Father Cusick
Sunday Mass Readings Podcast of ReadingsVideo Reflections Lecturas y Comentarios Sunday Readings Bible StudyPrayer of the HoursWhy do we say the Rosary at Catholic funerals? Jesus wept.
Our Lord's passionate love for us could not have taken him farther than the Cross. He poured out the ultimate gift, his own life-blood and broken body. His tears, whether over the death of his beloved friend Lazarus or his own people who rejected him, were of the ultimate, divine, compassion, and they bespoke his commitment to the Father's will to the end for our sake.
The sign of resurrection he bestowed in raising Lazarus indicated the object of our own hope. "I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die." We obtain this promise when we cast all our sins, doubts, earthly attachments, and desire for human respect behind our backs and run the race faithfully to meet the Lord.
We must desire Jesus Christ above all things, even life itself in this world. By this we obtain Life everlasting.
Jesus links faith in the resurrection to his own person: "I am the Resurrection and the life." (Jn 11:25) It is Jesus himself who on the last day will raise up those who have believed in him, who have eaten his body and drunk his blood. (Jn 6:40) Already now in this present life he gives a sign and pledge of this by restoring some of the dead to life, (Jn 11) announcing thereby his own Resurrection, though it was to be of another order. He speaks of this unique event as the 'sign of Jonah,' (Mt 12:39) the sign of the temple: he announces that he will be put to death but rise thereafter on the third day. (Jn 2:19-22)" (CCC 994)
I look forward to meeting you here again next week as, together, we "meet Christ in the liturgy"---Father Cusick
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