A lot of what we are taught about our Catholic faith can appear to be a
paradox, can’t it? We are told that in order to receive the joy of our faith, we are called to
take up a cross and follow Jesus. It is order to prepare to celebrate the Easter mysteries, the salvation we have
in the resurrection of the Lord, we are called to journey with Jesus for 40
days in the desert wilderness. In order to be a leader in context of our faith, we are not called to amass
power and authority, but rather we are called to be a servant. In order to receive new life in Christ, we must first die to our old life and
our old ways. And not only are we are called to repent and convert at the time we initially
called to be a disciple of Christ, we are called to a constant cycle of
repentance and conversion and renewal in our life of faith.
Perhaps in the ways of the world, all these things would be seen as a paradox,
but they are the truths of our faith as well. Today, perhaps we see a paradox in what plays out in today’s Gospel. We all go through difficulties in our
lives, don’t we? In one way or another,
we all go through moments of challenge and suffering, of anguish and pain. And we would fool ourselves to believe that once we become a disciple of
Christ, that this pain and those difficulties will go away. In those experiences of suffering, we might not feel the presence of God. We might feel alone and abandoned. Martha, the sister of Lazarus who was so attentive in serving Jesus and caring
for him we he visited her family on a previous occasion, runs out to meet Jesus
on the road, crying out to him, “Lord, if you had only been here…” I am sure Martha is thinking: you love my
brother and my family so much, you weep at the moment you hear that my brother
has died, and yet you were not here when we needed you most. Yet, in that moment of heartache and sorrow, Martha is able to open her ears
and her heart to the words of Jesus: “Martha,
I know that you believe that you will be resurrected on the last day, I know
that is a part of your faith. But it is I
who am the resurrection and the life.
And whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live. And everyone who lives and believes in me
will never die.”
When we grieve the death of a loved one, the suffering of a sick family member
or beloved friend, the death of a relationship or the death of a dream we had
in life, we could be wondering in our hearts: “Lord, if you had been here…” We might have felt that Jesus was not there with us in those moments. But Martha, the Martha that is always busy occupying herself with a task, makes
one of the most profound testimonies of faith in the New Testament: “Yes, Lord,
I believe. Yes, Lord, I have come to
believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God.” Martha, the one who cried out to Jesus, now realizes: Yes, Lord, you are indeed here, yes, Lord, it
is in you that we have eternal life. Those paradoxes that exist in our lives and exist in our faith can be
troubling, can’t they? We can feel grief, frustration, or pain, but at the same time, faith and understanding can exist as well.
It’s certainly a paradox.
Wisdom can come in different forms. Julian of Norwich was a young woman who lived
in the 14th century; she was an anchoress in her community. An anchoress is a woman
of faith who lived apart from society in an isolated cell. She is recognized today in our modern world
as a great Christian mystic. There were some things Julian struggled to understand about her faith. She wondered: in the great wisdom of God, why couldn't have sin been prevented
and so then we would not be in the predicament we are in in our world. Yet she hears these comforting words from Jesus in answer to her ponderings: In God's plan of salvation, it
was necessary that there should be sin, but all shall be well, and all shall be
well, and all manner of thing shall be well.” In this, Julian comes to the revelation that no matter what, all things will be
right in Christ.
We place our hope in Christ. We place our hope in our faith as we move forward through the holy season of Lent to the Easter mysteries to come. We have been approaching Lent as a special time in the cycle of our liturgical year: a time in which we examine our lives in a special way, at time in which we make special promises and commitments to God in our journey of these 40 days. Yes, there is a lot about our faith that be a paradox. There is a lot about our faith that can be beyond our human understanding of things. But, the Lord is indeed with us every step of the way, even during those times we don’t realize it.
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