Ruminations of an Irascible Hermit.: He calls you by name

Saturday, July 29, 2023

He calls you by name

Today we remember Sts Martha, Mary and Lazarus - the friends of Jesus.

This feast is a beautiful reminder of friendship with Jesus, and how much he loved his friends. All of us are called to follow Jesus, love him and be his friends too. We are known by Jesus, loved by him and called by name. When we are hurting and sad, he too weeps with us as a true friend (John 11:33-36).

Jesus wept to show his humanity (John 11:35), because our emotions have been redeemed in his Incarnation. As true God and true Man, he had emotions like us and feelings. So he wept and cried when sad. But in doing so, our sadness and crying has been transformed and sanctified. Now even our tears have meaning.

He did not weep because he thought he lost Lazarus (John 11:4). He wept because Jesus felt compassion for his friends and cried at seeing Mary and Martha so sad (John 11:33). He also wept because of the tragedy of death as a consequence of sin. Sin kills and destroys.

Martha often overlooked in the Gospels due to the other famous passage where she is upset with her sister Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus but not helping her with providing hospitality to their guests. But she ends up being reprimanded by Jesus for not choosing the better part and worrying too much (Luke 10:41-42). But in the story of Lazarus she is the one who had faith in Jesus (John 11:21-27) and who tells Mary her sister that Jesus is looking and waiting for her (John 11:28).

Friendship with Jesus allows boldness and honesty. Both Mary and Martha gently reprimand him “if you had been here” then Lazarus would not have died (John 11:21, 11:32). Only someone who was a real close friend could’ve had to tenacity and guts to almost reprimand Jesus for not being there. They had sent a message to Jesus when Lazarus was sick, asking him to come, but the Gospel tells us that Jesus deliberately stated behind extra days without rushing to Lazarus (John 11:5-6). They were his good friends and felt let down by him, so they felt that they could express their disappointment in him without denying his authority as the Messiah and Son of God (John 11:27).

This is the same friendship and intimacy we all need to have with Jesus in prayer, acknowledging our feelings and hurts without feeling that we are lacking in faith or respect towards him. How often have we felt like crying out to God “if you had been there” then such and such a thing would not have happened. We feel hurt and betrayed, let down by the one who is supposed to love us and care for us. But we can take comfort with Sts Martha and Mary that not only does Jesus weep together with us, but that he he also faithful to his promises to us (John 11:40) even when things feel lost.

Once Jesus arrives at Bethany he goes straight to the tomb of Lazarus and tells them to roll away the stone covering the tomb. By this time Lazarus had already been dead for 4 days (John 11:49).

Lazarus’s was called from death back to life (John 11:44). Not just back to life, but fullness of life. Jesus tells those present to unbind Lazarus from the burial cloths. We too are called not only by name by Jesus and back to life, but also out of bondage from all that holds us and binds us away from Him who is Life (John 11:25).

Jesus says “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him” (John 11:11). Then sets out for Bethany to find Lazarus and call him out of the tomb. He too is searching for us, coming to set us free and call us out of the tomb. But he calls each of us in different ways that are unique for us all. He knows us each by name. And as the Shepherd of his sheep, he calls us each by name, and waits for us to listen for his voice (John 10:27-28).

Listen to the voice of the one who loves you, so that others too will see the love of Jesus in you life and proclaim “see how much he loved him!” (11:36)

Sit at the feet of of Jesus like St Mary did (Luke 10:39) and imitate her attention to Jesus. Allow Jesus into your home and serve him like St Martha did (John 12:2) out of love and hospitality. Then like both of them, listen to Jesus when he calls you (John 11:28).

Listen to Jesus calling you by name - he calls out to you today

Calling you out of death to life

Calling you out of sin to holiness

Calling you out from bondage to freedom

Calling you out of darkness to light

Calling you friend

Calling you beloved

Can you hear him calling?

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Disclaimer

Please note. I am a Catholic layman, not a qualified theologian or philosopher. What I say and write here are my own personal thoughts and ideas, although I always try to conform my writings to the Magisterium of the Church.

I- with firm faith believe and profess everything that is contained in the symbol of faith: namely,

I believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen. I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in Being with the Father. Through him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven: By the power of the Holy Spirit, he was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered, died and was buried. On the third day he rose again in fulfillment of the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets. I believe in the one holy catholic and apostolic church. I acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

With firm faith I believe as well everything contained in God's word, written or handed down in tradition and proposed by the church--whether in solemn judgment or in the ordinary and universal Magisterium--as divinely revealed and called for faith.

I also firmly accept and hold each and every thing that is proposed by that same church definitively with regard to teaching concerning faith or morals.

What is more, I adhere with religious submission of will and intellect to the teachings which either the Roman pontiff or the college of bishops enunciate when they exercise the authentic Magisterium even if they proclaim those teachings in an act that is not definitive.