Lesson from Fr. Paulus | Lesson: Providence Can Take Care of Tragedies

My dear brothers and sisters, St John points out that "Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus." And yet, in spite of his love, Jesus doesn't rush back to Jerusalem to heal Lazarus. Nor does he heal him from a distance, as he did with the Centurion's servant.

Jesus loves these friends, and yet he lets them suffer. He lets them experience their helplessness and weakness, the painful separation of death and the loss of a loved one.

Did he do it to punish them? Did he do it because he had no power to remedy the evil? No, he let them suffer precisely because he loved them. If God protected us from all suffering, we would make the mistake of thinking that earth is heaven, that we could make ourselves truly happy just by our own efforts.

But we live in a fallen world, a world in which suffering is inevitable. And God allows us to experience that suffering as a way to remind us that life on earth is a journey towards heaven - it's the path, not the goal. The goal is heaven, and the resurrection of Lazarus is an appetizer of heaven.

What matters in life is not being perfectly comfortable: what matters in life is knowing, loving, and following Jesus Christ. Jesus uses our sufferings to help us to do that more and more. Our sufferings remind us that we are not God; they make us turn to God. He uses them as opportunities to act in our lives in new ways, revealing himself to us more completely, just as he did with Martha, Mary, and Lazarus.

In this way, he shows that his Providence is more powerful than even life's greatest tragedies. Nothing is out of reach for Christ's redemption.

Christ Bends Over Backwards to Prove That He Can Bring Good out of Evil

Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days, and Jesus Christ calls his name, orders him to come out, and he does.

Death itself obeys Christ the Lord. The crowd must have been stupefied, wide-eyed with disbelief, awe, and wonder that silenced them as Lazarus stepped out from the tomb, and then burst forth in a storm of joy and celebration.

Martha and Mary must have been so awestruck and ecstatic that they didn't know who to embrace first, their brother or their Lord. Lazarus, as soon as the cloths were removed, surely gazed into his Lord's shining eyes with the deepest love and most determined, courageous loyalty that he had ever experienced.

It is no coincidence that the Church presents this scene to us towards the end of the Lenten liturgical crescendo: two weeks ago Christ told the woman at the well that he was the Messiah; last week he cured a man born blind, something no one had ever done before; and now he tops everything by raising Lazarus from the dead.

Jesus knows that in order to fulfill the Father's plan of salvation he will soon have to suffer humiliation, torture, and death. As that moment draws near, he performs miracle after miracle to bolster his disciples' faith, so that it will survive the horrors of Calvary.

And he is doing it to bolster our faith too, so that we can continue to hope and even in the midst of our crosses, which are nothing less than pieces of his Cross, which in turn was the undeniable proof that his Providence can bring good out of evil, just as it is going to bring Easter Sunday out of Good Friday.

Trusting Christ in the Midst of Troubles

To say that God's Providence includes tragedies does not turn tragedies into comedies. Lazarus being raised from the dead didn't erase the experience of pain and loss that Martha and Mary went through during his sickness and after his death. Jesus rising from the dead on Easter Sunday didn't erase the indescribable pain and sorrow of Good Friday.

Just so, our sufferings and struggles really are sufferings and struggles. And we must never think that our faith in Jesus will make them go away. We will always have to suffer and struggle in this life.

But Jesus has given purpose to our sufferings and struggles. We know that he allows them for a reason, just as a good coach pushes his players beyond their comfort zone, no matter how much they complain. When we accept Christ's cross in our lives, even through our tears, we grow in wisdom and spiritual maturity - just like Martha in today's Gospel passage.

Having purpose in our suffering also makes it possible for us to have peace in our sufferings. Christ has proven that he will bring great things out of the greatest tragedies. And so, when storms of evil rock our boats, even while we struggle to keep afloat, in our hearts we can be at peace. Jesus wants us to have confidence in him, to trust him no matter what.

Now, let's grant him his wish. At the moments we pray the Creed, let's pray it from the heart, expressing our unlimited confidence in Christ the Lord. And when he comes to us in the Eucharist, let's ask him to strengthen all hearts that are still seeking purpose in their sufferings.