Fifth Sunday of Lent (John 11:3-7, 17, 20-27, 33b-45)

Cycle A

JESUS WEPT

 

Michael had Down’s syndrome.  One Friday night he felt ill.  The next morning he fell into a coma, was rushed to the hospital, and died. 

This little six year old influenced more people in his short life than most will influence in a whole life.  The nurses at the hospital cried upon his death, the funeral home directors cried when taking care of his body, and the parishioners and priests who packed the funeral Mass cried openly at the Mass.

How do we deal with such a tragedy?  Jesus came into the world for occasions such as this!  Jesus was fully human and fully divine:  In his humanity he showed us how to be human, and how to bring meaning to life, even in the tragic circumstances of life.  But Jesus did much more.  He showed us his divinity.  In his divinity, he showed us the magnificence of eternal life, that in HIM death is vanquished.  Jesus came to share in our human life so that we might share in his divine life.

Today’s Gospel reminds us that Jesus cried.  He cried to show us that in God all tears are precious.  Tears are a sign of love; they reflect the love we have for a person and the love they have or had for us.  And the beauty of such love is that it is pure and authentic and therefore is a powerful testament of grace, and where there is grace there is salvation.  Authentic and pure tears are a sign of authentic and pure love, and therefore a sign of salvation. 

The tears for Michael were a sign of the community’s love for this little Down’s syndrome boy, and his love for us!  Where there is such love grace abounds.  As the First Letter of John states:  “…[L]ove is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.  Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love.  If we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us….  God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him.”

Authentic love is a sign of salvation!

By sharing in our human life by crying, Jesus also helped show us his divine life—He reminded us that in him, with him, and for him we have been reborn into everlasting life—that in HIM death is vanquished.

And so the congregation found comfort in knowing that what Jesus said to Martha he said so for little Michael, too:  “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”

Michael and his parents believed this.

And so Michael is now enjoying eternal life with God.  And just as he loved us, cared for us, and prayed for us, he is doing so from heaven, in the presence of almighty God.  For in God life changes, but never ends.

 

Death is nothing at all. Life changes, but never ends.  Whatever we were to each other—that we still are.  Call me by my familiar name, speak to me in the easy way you always used to. Laugh as we laughed.  Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.  Let my name be the household name it always was.  Life means all that it ever meant.  I have not gone; I am closer to you now than ever before.  There is an absolute unbroken continuity.  Why should I be out of your mind and presence just because I am out of your sight.  All is well.  I am waiting for you.  Someday we will all be together with God.  Keep well, keep the faith.  Nothing is past, nothing is lost.  One blink of the eye and we will be together forever, for eternity with God.  Life changes, but never ends.

(adopted from a funeral prayer)