Tuesday February 22, 2022
Theme : “ Jesus teaches and practices love ”
Text : John 11:32-44
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. 33. Jesus, seeing her weep, she and the Jews who had come with her, trembled in her spirit, and was greatly moved. 34. And he said: Where did you put it? Lord, they answered him, come and see. 35. Jesus wept. 36. Whereupon the Jews said, See how he loved her. 37. And some of them said, Could he not also that opened the eyes of the blind, that this man should not die? 38. Jesus trembling again within himself, went to the sepulchre. It was a cave, and a stone was placed in front of it. 39. Jesus said: Take away the stone. Marthe, the dead man's sister, said to him: Lord, he already feels, for he has been there four days. 40. Jesus said to him: Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God? 41. So they removed the stone. And Jesus looked up and said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42. For me, I knew that you always answer me; but I spoke because of the crowd around me, so that they would believe that you sent me. 43. Having said this, he cried with a loud voice: Lazarus, come out! 44. And the dead man came out, his feet and hands bound with bandages, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, Untie him, and let him go.
Let's remember:
Jesus' language of love is a language that no human intelligence can grasp. The human spirit is so weak that it cannot reach the pinnacle of this excellent language of love. For humans, when a person dies, he goes into putrefaction and because of this unbearable smell, no one can approach to remove the stone from the sepulchre. We protect ourselves from the smell. But this refusal prevents Jesus from continuing to love the one who is already rotten. Jesus loves us despite our smell of rottenness; despite the stench of our sins, despite our unbelief; despite the obstacles (stones) that block our hearts and prevent him from coming to our aid. For Jesus, stone, smell, denial and death are not obstacles to love. Even when those around him denigrate him for not having prevented Lazarus from dying, Jesus does not get discouraged, he does not give up, he does not retract, he does not renounce his love for Lazarus, he does not respond to its detractors. This language of love is closed to the human mind; it is almost coded and encrypted for human intelligence. But Jesus the repository of love demonstrates that there are facets of love to experience and promote around us. Excellent Tuesday. Amen Alain Louz.-
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