Our Lady of Perpetual Help Roman Catholic Parish issued the following announcement on March 29

Even though we say that we believe, there is a part of us that doesn’t. There are many times in our lives when we experience death, whether it be the physical death of someone we love, a failed relationship, the loss of a job, or a broken dream. As we are going through these death experiences, we can easily find ourselves reaching out to God to make it better and fix it! We think that the proper order of life is to maintain the things of this world, especially those things that are essential to our sense of wellbeing and security. We do not like change. The grieving that comes from our death experiences can keep us stuck and in despair. If we have lost something or someone of great value, the very meaning and essence of life is lost with them. We need gentle companions to lift us from despair and that is precisely who God desires to be in our life as well.

God calls us out of our tombs, where we have been closed up in fear and despair, and shouts, “Come out!” He desperately wants to show us the path to hope and the new life that is possible after loss and death. But our faith can be weak, and we still prefer to cling to the memory of what we had rather than the joyful possibilities of tomorrow. We sometimes live as if God is not real and that the transformative power of His resurrected presence is a story found in the Bible rather than a narrative unfolding in our lives.

God is the God of surprises, not our demise. God opens new possibilities, begins new chapters, creates new verses, and brings us to new heights! We spend so much time and energy ruminating over what we left behind yesterday that we are far too tired to see what can unfold tomorrow. Loving someone new doesn’t negate our past loves. Embracing the love of a person, God, or life itself tomorrow doesn’t diminish the love of yesterday. Each of our loves is different, and one cannot be replaced by another. They don’t cancel each other out. God truly has tended to every detail of our lives, and if we listen to each detail, we find that they all lead us back to Him. Jesus wants us to come out of our closed-up tombs. Are we going to listen this time?

La Resurrección y la Vida

La semana pasada, el ciego de nacimiento nos ilumino a creer en Jesús y postrarnos ante el para adorarlo. Ahora, la Liturgia, nos presenta otro gran milagro y las amigas de Jesús lo afirman de manera diferente al ciego. El dialogo es diferente pero la pregunta es la misma: ¿Crees tú esto? Es decir, que Jesús es la resurrección y la vida. La respuesta es afirmativa: “Si, Señor. Creo firmemente que tú eres el Mesías, el Hijo de Dios, el que tenía que venir al mundo.” (Juan 11:27) Para que el milagro sucediera, Jesús se tardó a propósito dos días en llegar, como nos lo relata el Evangelio. Tiempo muy largo para las hermanas. Era demasiado retraso; cuatro días tenía ya su hermano en el sepulcro. Sin embargo, para tener fe el tiempo no cuenta. Ellas tenían fe y el Señor las pone a prueba. Salieron triunfantes; Marta y María son modelo para todas las generaciones.

Estamos por terminar el camino en el desierto; la Cuaresma pronto llagara a su fin. El próximo Domingo celebraremos el Domingo de Ramos. A estas alturas, ya debe la fe rebozar en el corazón de cada creyente. Tal como las amigas de Jesús: “Marta y María, protagonistas del Evangelio de hoy, nos enseñan cómo debe vivirse la vida del cristiano, ‘el enamorado’ del Señor… ‘Contemplación y servicio’: éste es el camino de nuestra vida. Cada uno de nosotros piense: ¿Cuánto tiempo al día dedico a contemplar el misterio de Jesús? Y después: ¿Cómo trabajo? Trabajo tanto ¿que parece una alienación, o trabajo de modo coherente con mi fe?...

Nos hará bien pensar esto”. (Papa Francisco)

Original source can be found here.

Source: Our Lady of Perpetual Help Roman Catholic Parish