The one You love is ill

"Master, the one you love is ill."

My older sister brought me to a deeper appreciation of these words of Martha of Bethany to our Lord Jesus.  This is her prayer to the Lord whenever she feels unwell, especially emotionally.  I have come to embrace this too in like manner, as well as in situations where a dear one, who I know the Lord holds much dearer, is in a troubling situation.

It is such a consoling, endearing, heartwarming thought that Jesus loves.  Of course, we know and believe that God is love, and that He has created everything and sustains them out of love, and that the Holy Spirit is the Person which that shared love between the Father and the Son brings forth as Power...  But to read from the Gospels how Jesus, both in His divinity and humanity, was driven to love: that filial love to Mary and Joseph, that loving gaze to the rich young man, that question of love to Peter, that loving compassion to Zacchaeus and the woman caught in adultery, and now, this love for Lazarus.

I am ill.  Physically, I am constrained about things which, ten years ago, I would still be able to do.  Some relationships in my life are staring a blank wall, begging for clarity, begging the question "What now?"  Since the year started, I am overwhelmed with the magnitude of concerns at work and in ministry, both in my day job and in my parish involvement.  While I acknowledge shafts of heavenly light here and there on the terrain of my faith, I assess a drying up of some sort, at times wallowing in sin if I may say while pretty much hanging on to precious, necessary grace.

And sometimes, the Lord permits this illness, "for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it".

In my prayer these holy days of Lent, I remember dear ones who are ill, perhaps even dying in some way, and remind the Lord about these loved ones of His who are ill.  You who read this, pray too for me please.  And already, let me thank you for being like Martha, praying to the Lord for me, telling Him that the one He loves is ill.

Together, let us trust Him who is life to bring new life into the dry deserts of our days, who will come to us even if He has to be stoned or be crucified again.  And when He calls us out of our illness or even our deaths, may we be brave enough to come out of our graves, to be untied and live in the splendid and solemn freedom of God's children, to give glory to Him who loves us into wholeness.