If you had been here...

5th Sunday of Lent
John 11 1-45
March 29, 2020
 
Today's Gospel is quite long, almost the entire chapter 11 of the Gospel of Saint John, 45 verses. Like all stories, it has its beginning, a middle and an end. And like all stories, the middle part is always the longest part. In the beginning we have the illness of Lazarus, the sisters sending a message to Jesus and his decision to go see Lazarus. The middle part is the death of Lazarus. The sorrow of the two sisters, their family and friends who came to pay their respects, the reaction of Jesus and finally Jesus at Lazarusgrave. The last chapter  is the resuscitation of Lazarus. When Jesus calls Lazarus from death to life. Lazarus hears the call of Jesus and comes out of the grave. We are blessed because we know the end of the story. We know that Lazarus came back to life. We know that death was not the end. The story has a happy ending.
Right now, we are in the middle of our story. The beginning was in January when we found out about this pandemic. A problem in China, we may not have given much to the story, perhaps we have prayed for the people there. Perhaps we though, “ Good! I;m glad that I don't live there. Hopefully it will not come here. ” The truth is that we probably didn't pay too much attention to the story. But it was only the beginning, the middle part was closer. Now not in China on the other side of the world but Italy. A closer place, a place that perhaps we have visited, and maybe we know someone who lives there. Then Spain, and New York. Now Los Angeles. We are in the middle of history. We are not blessed to know the end of the story. We don't know what will happen. Maybe, just maybe social distancing will do the trick maybe the pandemic won't be as bad here. Maybe not. Who is going to get sick? Are there people who will die from the virus? In the gospel the sisters will send Jesus news of Lazarus' illness, and what is his reaction? Jesus does not leave immediately, he waits two days. Two days! He waits until Lazarus is dead and then goes to see Lazarus. Because he waited Lazarus had to suffer, he had to die. The Sisters had to take care of him, and then they knew the pain of death, the loss of the brother they loved.  My question is the same question as Marta and María. "Lord, if you had been here." "Lord, if you had  been here." Where is God? If God is almighty, why not just end the pandemic. More than 600,000 people have become ill. 30 thousand lost their lives. Isn't that enough? How many more have to get sick? How many more have to die? Isn't it enough? Mary is asking the eternal question of why do people suffer, where is God? Where was God in the death of Lazarus? Where is God when the innocent suffer? Where is God in Hurricanes, and earthquakes? Where is God in the middle of this pandemic? Where was God at your brother's death? Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. Jesus does not answer Martha's or Mary's direct question. Jesus hasn't  answered the question for the past 2,000 years, nor does he answer it today in the midst of this pandemic.
 
But Jesus had two different answers for the sisters. Jesus' response to Martha is to say that Lazarus is going to live in a deeper way. And for Mary Jesus' answer is that he is moved to the depths and asks, "Where did they put him?" And when people take Jesus to the place of the dead he begins to cry. Jesus' response is to enter our suffering and pain. His response is to get closer to us.
At the beginning I said that we do not know the answer to the story. That we are in the middle of history and that is why we suffer more. But it is not true. The truth is that we do not know how this chapter of the story will end but we do know how the story will end. We know the end of the story. If we believe we will live forever. The God we believe in does not necessarily intervene and rescue us from suffering and death (although we are invited to pray for that). No, instead, he redeems our suffering later. Sometimes the only answer to why we suffer is the answer that Jesus gave to Martha and Mary - shared helplessness, shared anguish, and shared tears, with no attempt to explain what we feel as an absence. We know in the end all will be well and our pain will one day be redeemed in the embrace of God.



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