***
I hate traffic.
Sometimes you’re stuck in it so long, it feels like we’ve entered the ninth circle of Dante’s hell! That stop and go… stop and go… can feel like an eternity.
Perhaps the reason why I – and I’m sure all of us – despise traffic is because it causes us to be delayed.
We’ve got somewhere to go, and those three hundred cars in front of us are all that’s preventing our arrival.
***
In the Gospel, Martha cries at the feet of Jesus, because he was delayed in his arrival.
“If you had been here, Lord,” she says, “my brother would not have died.”
Martha’s brother, Lazarus, has been dead for two days, wrapped inside a tomb. What made his death so heartbreaking for her was the fact that she believed Jesus could’ve healed him.
“If you had been here, Lord…If you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
***
How many of us have said something similar to Jesus? “If you had been here, Lord…if you had been here.”
We pray for an open door, a job, healing, a spouse, inner peace…but it feels like Jesus is stuck in a traffic jam.
He’s delayed.
***
We must remember the other half of the story.
Although delayed, Jesus arrives – he pulls up and raises Lazarus from the dead. He answers Martha’s prayer.
If we’re still waiting on the Lord to respond, have faith.
Jesus never deserts his flock.
***
For today’s Mass readings, go to:
www.usccb.org