Thursday July 29, 2021 - Saint Martha - I am the light of the world, says the Lord, who follows me will have the light of life - Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 11, 19-27

Like Marthe and Marie, we are living in a painful moment with the loss of some of our relatives, of our acquaintances, because of this pandemic. Sometimes, because of the intensity of this pain, we cannot hold back our cry to God: "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." Behind this cry, we can imagine that Martha feels ignored and abandoned by God: "How is it possible that in the face of our current suffering, God does not intervene to help us knowing that he has the power to heal all diseases? "

Martha asks Jesus to intercede with God the Father to resuscitate Lazarus, her brother, to prolong the bodily life of his brother as long as possible. But Jesus, for his part, wanted to lead Martha and each of us to a catechesis on the mystery of life and the resurrection: "Your brother will rise again". Martha believed in the resurrection at the end of time, while Jesus invited her to deepen her faith in the resurrection present, here and now, in the very person of the Son of God who is present among us (Martha speaks in the future while Jesus speak in the present tense).

Here, Jesus reveals to us a very important catechesis: first, we must believe that the resurrection passes through Jesus Christ: "I am the resurrection". Second, the resurrection is a present reality, but not only a future one. It is a possible reality, already effective in faith.

If the resurrection goes through Jesus Christ, who came to bring the life of God to our world, we can be resurrected if we believe in him: “I am the resurrection. Whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe it? ”. He comes into the world to open our tombs and communicate eternal life to us. So, in the face of our current pain, we are invited not to seek to recover our dear deceased or to prolong their bodily life as long as possible, but rather to believe in Jesus the Son of God who can give us a life capable of overcoming bodily death. But don't let that stop us from praying for the rest of the souls of our dead.