Reflection
“Lazarus, come out!”
Some years ago, I asked my confessor and spiritual director, Fr. Vincent O’Reilly, who has since passed into eternal life: Why did God create us if our very existence seems to provoke so much hatred, persecution, and suspicion? At that time my heart was deeply wounded. Even a priest had used his homily to insult us for being Hispanic and living in the United States. Those words left a deep pain in my soul.
But over time I came to understand something that today’s Gospel reveals with great power: God does not abandon His children in the darkness of the tomb.
The cry of Jesus before the tomb of Lazarus — “Lazarus, come out!” — also echoes in the tombs of our own lives. That cry, which I often heard as well in the faith-filled words of Fr. Vincent, continues to draw me each day out of the threshold of desolation: from the fear born of violence and hatred, from the exhaustion of illness, and from the sorrow caused by the world’s indifference to the suffering of so many victims of war, abuse, and injustice.
The Gospel shows us something deeply human and deeply divine at the same time: Jesus weeps.
God is not indifferent to human suffering. But His tears are not the end of the story. Standing before the tomb, Jesus speaks a word that opens the door to life: “Lazarus, come out!” And where death seemed to reign, new life begins.
St. Paul of the Cross, founder of the Passionists, taught that the Passion of Christ is “the greatest and most overwhelming work of God’s love.” In Passionist spirituality, we learn that even in the midst of suffering, rejection, or injustice, God’s love continues to work quietly and powerfully. As St. Paul of the Cross often reminded his companions: “In the wounds of Christ we find hope.”
This is how God acts. Perhaps not always in the way we expect, nor in the time we imagine, but always with the power to bring life again. When we hear the voice of Christ calling us by name, we too can step out of the tombs within our hearts.
Because where the Spirit of God dwells, death — in any of its forms — never has the final word. And from the Cross, Christ still whispers to the heart of the world:
“Come out… live… and do not be afraid.”
