For this Sunday’s Gospel and the other Scrutiny Year A readings, click here!
When I pray, I ask God to answer my prayers in His “perfect timing.” I lift up my friends and family and offer Him my intentions. After my laundry list of prayers, I end with “Father, I ask that You answer these according to Your will and Your perfect timing.”
I’ve been told that God’s timing is perfect, but deep down, I don’t always believe it. There are things that I want to happen right now, but God gently asks me to wait. There are things that I don’t want to happen yet, but God reveals that it’s time. Whether we like or understand it or not, God’s timing truly is perfect. He has good and beautiful plans for each one of us, and He makes sure that they unfold exactly as He sees fit. Whether God’s timing is exactly when we want it to be, or if it’s not what we expected at all, it’s still greater than our own.
In the Scrutiny Year A readings, we read the account of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. Jesus intentionally waits to go to Judea, and by the time He gets there, Lazarus had been dead for days. Martha approaches Jesus and tells Him that if He had arrived sooner, Lazarus would still be alive. I see so much of myself in Martha. I can recall quite a few times when I grew irritated at God because of His timing. I remember asking Him why something couldn’t have happened sooner, or if He would’ve worked a little harder or a little faster, something wouldn’t have happened. But then, Like Martha, I realized why God answered my prayers with a patient “not yet.”
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Witnessing Jesus heal Lazarus would have been great, but witnessing Him raise Lazarus from the dead must have been even greater. Earlier in the story, Martha and Mary didn’t understand why Jesus didn’t heal Lazarus. When Jesus made Lazarus to walk out of the tomb, they knew that He had something better in mind than just healing him. Through this miracle, He affirmed that He is the resurrection and the life. Just like Lazarus’ sisters, we don’t always understand God’s timing in the moment. We might get to see the reasons behind God’s timing in this life, and if not, we’ll understand when we meet Him.
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