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If there’s anything that tests our patience, it’s waiting.

For example, think of how many of us sit in traffic on our ride home from work. That stop-and-go, stop-and-go feels like your inching your way into Dante’s 9^th circle of hell.

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These days, however, we’ve shed our traffic patterns for long lines at the grocery store. 

We’ve all seen images of people standing outside of Costco, the line literally wrapped around the building, people standing six feet apart.

While we wait, we run through our grocery list ten times over, making sure we don’t forget a single thing. 

Meanwhile our stir-crazy kids sit at home, trying to learn something from their teachers online, while their own patience is tested.

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Most importantly, we’re waiting for an end to the Coronavirus. Time is of the essence. We need a cure.

Health experts are warning us that our healthcare system is quickly reaching a tipping point; soon enough, we won’t be able to treat every patient who’s ill.

We’ve already seen images of patients lying on hospital floors in Spain; the country is overwhelmed. Doctors and nurses are literally choosing between who receives life-saving care and who doesn’t.

Meanwhile, we wait. We wait for a cure. We wait to file our taxes. We wait to pay our bills. We wait for relief.

This all seems like a page ripped out of a science fiction novel. But it isn’t. It’s real.

Strangely enough, it’s like a page ripped out of the bible. In particular, a page from today’s Gospel.

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Like all those infected with the Coronavirus, Lazarus is sick; he’s dying. 

So his sister, Mary, does the only thing she can. She sends word to her friend Jesus, the miracle-worker, begging him to save her brother.

Then they sit and wait.

What follows, however, is haunting and strange. Jesus, fully aware that his friend Lazarus is near death, also sits and waits.

As the Gospel tells us, “When he heard that Lazarus was ill, Jesus remained for two days in the place where he was.”

Why would he wait?!?

The simple thought that Jesus lets Lazarus suffer can make our blood boil.

In fact, Jesus waits so long that Lazarus is dead for four days before he arrives. “Lord, if you had been here,” Martha says, “my brother would not have died.”

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We know how the story ends. Lazarus is raised from the dead. But let’s push pause on that for a moment and pay attention to what Jesus does next.

It’s the shortest sentence in the New Testament, but it’s packed with meaning.

“And Jesus wept.”

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Jesus, the Son of God, wept. 

God wept.

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Over the last two months, how many of us have wept? 

People have become sick, deathly ill; others have lost their jobs; schools have been shut down; fear and frustration simmer in our hearts. 

The fact that Jesus himself stopped and wept adds an incredible value to our own tears. 

He wept because his friend Lazarus had died. He wept because his friends were ripped apart in grief. He wept because death is real. It happens. 

Jesus wept because he, too, was human.

In these times of trial, Jesus reminds us how important it is to show empathy towards one another.

To weep with those who weep, to pray for those who protect us, to support those who cannot support themselves.

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But thank God that isn’t the end of the story. Literally, thank God.

Wiping the tears from his eyes, Jesus calls Lazarus out of the tomb, commanding his friends to untie him.

Here we see the reason behind Jesus’ waiting. 

He waited until Lazarus was dead for four days to teach us a lesson, one we need to be reminded of in the midst of this current Coronavirus pandemic.

In his own words, “Our friend Lazarus is asleep, but I am going to awaken him.”

Jesus makes Lazarus rise, showing his disciples that he has power over death, because the next person to fall asleep will be Jesus himself.

But wipe your tears away, for he, too, will rise.

This is the Easter story we’re waiting for, the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. In that – in his resurrection – we find the promise of our own.

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What a timely Gospel passage for us.

We have, it seems, nearly every detail and emotion that’s happening in our world. People are sick; people are praying for a cure; some are being healed, while others are overwhelmed with grief.

But come Easter Sunday, Jesus will remind us again that we, too, shall live.

For, “I am the resurrection and the life,” he says, “whoever believes in me, even if he dies (like Lazarus), will live.” 

Thanks be to God.

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“No one laid a hand on him because his hour had not come” (John 7:30).

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Throughout John’s Gospel, Jesus makes constant reference to his “hour.” 

We first hear him speak about it at the wedding at Cana, when Jesus turns 150 gallons of water into wine at the prompting of Mary.

We hear further reference of his “hour” in today’s Gospel. The religious authorities are collapsing in on Jesus, plotting to kill him but they do not because his “hour” has not yet come.

What is this “hour” Jesus is so concerned about?

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The “hour” of his crucifixion, death, and resurrection.

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Everything that Jesus does throughout his life, throughout his ministry, every sermon he preaches, every miracle he performs is somehow inspired by this “hour.”

In two weeks from today, you and I will journey with Jesus as his “hour” begins to unfold. 

On Good Friday, he will be mocked, scourged, and crucified.

And on Easter Sunday he will rise again, the fulfillment of his “hour.”

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Jesus prepared himself for his “hour” throughout his life. 

It’s also what we’re called to do particularly during Lent. So how well have we journeyed with Jesus this Lent? 

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There’s no doubt this has been a unique Lent. Never before, at least in my lifetime, has Mass be publicly suspended. 

But let’s not use this as an excuse to fall into a type of spiritual complacency or laziness. Rather, seize every opportunity we have to grow in our prayer life.

There’s only two weeks left until Good Friday. Jesus will embrace this “hour” with incredible courage, knowing his death will lead to his resurrection.

Make every effort to remain by his side. For his resurrection promises our own.

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Since the outbreak of the Coronavirus, there’s been a flurry of panic buying.

People have flooded grocery stores, clearing shelves left and right. There’s even a rush on toilet paper. 

It’s all driven by this underlying fear of the unexpected, of being ill prepared for disaster.

Sadly, whenever hard times strike, there’s not only widespread fear, there are also opportunists looking to make an extra buck. 

Two Tennessee men, for example, stockpiled 17,000 bottles of hand sanitizer hoping to price gouge people on Amazon. Thankfully, they were forced to donate them.

Shelf clearing, toilet paper hoarding, and especially price gouging on household essentials sounds ludicrous and unfair.

Because it is.

But all of these behaviors are driven by varying degrees of selfishness, a tendency that can twist any human heart.

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In the Gospel, for example, a man has been ill for 38 years. 

He’s staked his hope for being healed on dipping in the waters at the pool of Siloam. Think of Siloam a bit like the shrine at Our Lady of Lourdes in France. 

Christians who are ill for any reason make a pilgrimage there, seeking to bathe themselves in this blessed – and freezing cold – water. 

In a similar way, the waters beneath Siloam bubbled up on rare occasions.

People believed the eruption was caused by an angel, thus the first person to bathe in those waters would be healed from his or her infirmities. 

This poor man had been waiting for his chance for 38 years. But every time those waters were stirred, a stampede ensued.

“Everybody gets down there before me,” he says to Jesus. Though everyone was in need, no one, it seems, thought of giving this man his chance.

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“Everybody gets down there before me.” 

Can’t we hear this crippled man’s voice echo in the throats of our neighbors – the sick, the elderly, the stay-at-home mom – who hope for their own share of groceries and hygienic supplies, only to find shelves emptied?

Selfishness.

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This Gospel is a gentle reminder to us all that we’re still in Lent. 

Though we’re all in need of things – from hand sanitizer to a hug – we have to fight our selfish tendencies and the spiritual malaise that can set in from being bored at home.

Theres an unknown number of days of this to come.

As we wait for the light at the end of the tunnel, make every effort to be thoughtful, generous, and patient.

Maybe even call up that stay-at-home mom with her hands full or an aging neighbor to see if you can pick up their groceries and leave them at their doorstep.

Though charity is always the best path to take, it’s even more important now.