Fifth Sunday of Lent Homily

Posted on Apr 5, 2017

FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT

2 April 2017

Homily

In the gospel we hear Jesus say a very curious thing.

“Jesus said clearly, Lazarus has died.

And I am glad for you that I was not there,

that you may believe.”

It sounds so cold-hearted.

We should live through something painful, saddening, hard, just to come to belief?

Is this the picture of a God we could love?

I think the deeper truth here is this:

That everyone of us here will live through difficult days and long nights.

Everyone of us here will have some trauma, some tragedy, some despair

which we will face,

and the question will always be: “Will our faith endure?”

Jesus believes it can.

Jesus believes that all the hard things which happen to us in life

do not have to turn us to bitterness,

do not have to portray God as impotent or irrelevant.

At the end of this interchange Thomas says:

“Let us go with him, even if it means we will die with him.”

Those are brave words which we know are stronger than his faith at that moment.

In fact, Thomas has to live through his dark night of the soul–

has to live through his betrayal of Jesus and the death of Jesus,

before he is willing really, to die with Jesus.

Thomas has to learn for himself, as do we all have to do,

that we can live through our tragedies and still have faith.