Ostium Catholic

Jeremiah's wound is incurable - that is his assessment. God's response does not dispute the diagnosis. He says: I will make you a solid wall of brass. They will fight you and not prevail. I am with you. The wound is real, and God does not pretend otherwise. The promise is not that the pain goes away but that it does not have the final word.

Martha runs to Jesus while Mary stays home. The Gospel honors both without adjudicating between them. Martha's prayer is the one recorded at length: Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. The grievance and the trust arrive together, in the same sentence. Even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you. She does not resolve the contradiction before speaking. She brings both.

Jesus does not answer the grievance first. He makes the claim: I am the resurrection and the life. And standing at the tomb, in the grief, before the stone is moved, he asks the question that is the axis of the whole Gospel: do you believe this?

Martha's yes has been said at every graveside across twenty centuries. It is said not because everything makes sense but because the person asking the question is Jesus. The faith of the early twenties is often the faith that hasn't been to a tomb yet. This Gospel asks the question before the tomb arrives.

Do you believe this? Not as a theological proposition - as the direct question Jesus is asking you right now. What is the specific thing in your life that makes the question hard? Bring that to the question rather than setting it aside.

Lord, I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one coming into the world. That yes is mine, said from where I actually am. Precious Blood of Jesus, save us. Amen.