There was a dearly beloved man whom Jesus loved.  This one is likened to allof us.  He loves us so much.  We are beloved.  Mary and Martha also are loved by Jesus.  We have much that God speaks to us through these three.

John 11:1-45

1 Now a man was ill, Lazarus from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
2 Mary was the one who had anointed the Lord with perfumed oil and dried his feet with her hair; it was her brother Lazarus who was ill.

Here was one of the other Mary’s that loved the Lord. This was Mary of Bethany, who also anointed the feet of Jesus after the rasing of Lazarus, (John 12:1).
Mary and Martha sent word to Jesus that Lazarus was ill, seriously ill.

3 So the sisters sent word to him, saying, "Master, the one you love is ill."
4 When Jesus heard this he said, "This illness is not to end in death, but is for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it."
5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.

It is apparent that there was a close relationship between these people and Jesus, because St. John and Mary (our Mother) makes sure we know this.
Recall, it was Mary, the Mother of our Lord, that was given to St. John at the Cross. Mary (our Mother) and John would speak much of all that she pondered in her heart over those years.
A strange happening comes about. Jesus almost looks like he purposefully delays his leaving for Bethany.

6 So when he heard that he was ill, he remained for two days in the placewhere he was.
7 Then after this he said to his disciples, "Let us go back to Judea."

Often, there are delays that we cannot explain, thinking that God does not care. He delays, therefore, God must not care. This is never true.
Yet, we think of the obstacles between the goals of Jesus and how we cannot see how God is able to accomplish his goals. Life appears too complicated!
We cannot see what Jesus will do.
No so with Jesus. He is the Light of the world. He sees clearly. He conveys the truth, because he is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

8 The disciples said to him, "Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you, and you want to go back there?"
9 Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours in a day? If one walks during the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world.
10 But if one walks at night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him."
11 He said this, and then told them, "Our friend Lazarus is asleep, but I am going to awaken him."
12 So the disciples said to him, "Master, if he is asleep, he will be saved."
13 But Jesus was talking about his death, while they thought that he meant ordinary sleep.
14 So then Jesus said to them clearly, "Lazarus has died.
15 And I am glad for you that I was not there, that you may believe. Let us go to him."
Lazarus had died.

Is death so final for Jesus though? It is so final to us? How fittingly, it is Easter, that we are raised to newness of Life in Christ!  How fittingly, may we all come to these passages and recall again and again the beauty of the Hope we have in Jesus, the Living Christ, the Living God, our Resurrection and Life!
John focuses upon this, because it was Mary who spoke to John of these things, for she bore Jesus in her womb to full term and in a very special way, God showed her the Way, the Truth, and, the Life in terms we may never fully know except through our Lady.

16 So Thomas, called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, "Let us also go to die with him."

Thomas thinks only of death -- to die with him.
Am I like Thomas when I go with Jesus?
Yes, let us go and die with Jesus -- die to selfishness, die to arrogance, die to pride, to sins of the flesh, to all things that hinder a right relationship with God through Christ!  Let us die with him to be raised to new Life in Jesus!
Should we not look at our journey to Christ at Easter as a journey to resurrection and newness of Life in Christ?
I think so, my beloved. For, that indeed is what we are coming to... Life in Christ and his Church! There is a new fellowship -- the Community of the Faithful. WE do not live the Life of Faith outside the Community!

17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days.
18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, only about two miles away.
19 And many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother.
20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him; but Mary sat at home.
21 Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
22 (But) even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you."
23 Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise."
24 Martha said to him, "I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day."

How limited is our understanding? Yet Jesus comes to do something personalized for each of us here.
Why is this?

25 Jesus told her, "I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live,
26 and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

Do you and I believe this, my beloved? If we believe this, and trust in Christ, and become partakers of his new life, we will live too!

27 She said to him, "Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world."
28 When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary secretly, saying, "The teacher is here and is asking for you."
29 As soon as she heard this, she rose quickly and went to him.
30 For Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still where Martha had met him.
31 So when the Jews who were with her in the house comforting her saw Mary get up quickly and go out, they followed her, presuming that she was going to the tomb to weep there.
32 When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said to him, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died."

Martha had said -- "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. (But) even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you."
Mary of Bethany did this -- When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said to him, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died."
There is something about Mary of Bethany that waited for him and came to where he was and fell at his feet and simply said this and no more. "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died."
Jesus, our Immanuel, is with us, feeling what we feel in Mary of Bethany. . .
Now, we feel what Jesus feels for us.
How else may it be said?
How else could God have shown it?
What more need be said?

33 When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping, he became perturbed and deeply troubled,
34 and said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to him, "Sir, come and see."
35 And Jesus wept.

Jesus wept.
If there was anything in all the world that would tell us how God feels about our condition and how God wants to help, these are the words my beloved!
Jesus WEPT. . .
Not just for Mary, and those who wept there, or, even for Lazarus. No, he wept for you and me too.
But, how little the Jews, or we, understand. It was not just Lazarus, it was all of them and us! That was why he wept, for the text says it -- When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping, he became perturbed and deeply troubled, and said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to him, "Sir, come and see."
And Jesus wept.

36 So the Jews said, "See how he loved him."
37 But some of them said, "Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man have done something so that this man would not have died?"
38 So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay across it.
39 Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the dead man’s sister, said to him, "Lord, by now there will be a stench; he has been dead for four days."
40 Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?"
41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus raised his eyes and said, "Father, I thank you for hearing me.
42 I know that you always hear me; but because of the crowd here I have said this, that they may believe that you sent me."
43 And when he had said this, he cried out in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!"
44 The dead man came out, tied hand and foot with burial bands, and his face was wrapped in a cloth. So Jesus said to them, "Untie him and let him go."

Could he not have saved Lazarus?
But, wait... Yes, Jesus did, indeed, because the resurrection of Jesus was in the plan of God the Father.
Listen my brothers and sisters -- it is because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ that Lazarus was raised, and we too shall live again someday.
The raising of Lazarus was a preview of things to come!
You and I may be on our way to the grave, but, we are not going to stay there forever.
There may be those we love in the grave, but, they will not stay there forever.
Because Jesus was raised from the dead, all will be raised either to life, or, everlasting judgment.
The choice becomes ours.
Faith in God brings life.
Faithlessness brings death.
Our scrutiny is to judge ourselves as to what is our Faith?
Faith in Christ brings Life in him. Let is be converted as true sons and daughters of God through Faith in Christ Jesus.
That is the meaning of our Baptism and our Confirmation. Walking in the newness of the Life we have in Christ Jesus.

45 Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary and seen what he had done began to believe in him.

There is another Mary, too, that beckons us to her Son and the Life he has become for you and me.



Deus et Sanctissima.