Father Ryan Higdon

5th Sunday of Lent
The readings for this Mass can be found here.
Evil doesn’t make sense. We’ll never know why these things happen to us, especially when it seems to come out of nowhere.
Over the past few weeks I’ve been talking about how we can challenge and overcome our temptations through prayer. However, this Sunday I felt compelled to talk about how we cope when everything metaphorically hits the fan. What do we do when evil strikes and nothing makes sense? How do we deal with life when all we can ask of God is, “what gives” or “why not me, Lord? Why don’t you heal me?”
In today’s Gospel this basic question of ours is given voice by the Jewish bystanders, “if He healed the blind man, why didn’t he save this one?”  Comparing our story with others we wonder why and often ask that simple question, why not me. We’ll even wonder if this means we lack faith, trust, or true prayer.
We may very well indeed lack faith but, in today’s homily my suggestion is that it’s far more likely we just lack perspective. In the midst of our legitimate tears we’re likely blinded from who else is crying with us. Our grief can give us tunnel vision and make us think we’re alone in this.
God cried for Lazarus and he cries for you and me. You and I are not alone.
Listen to today’s homily and please know that Christ has answered your question with the tears and a sign of his own.
Featured Image by Victor Bezrukov/ CC BY
After you have listened, please feel free to weigh-in in the comment section below.