Jesus, our faithful friend
Listening the Spirit
Lord, thank you for the gift of Your Word so that all your people may know and love You more and understand You better.
As I go about my day, may I not forget the scriptures you have opened up for me.
Help me to recognize how You want for me to apply Your Word to my daily life. Holy Spirit, guided by Your Word, may You enlighten my mind and enkindle in my heart a greater love for You and for others in my family and in the world.
Amen.
Listening the Word: John 11:1-45
The sisters of Lazarus sent word to Jesus, saying,
“Master, the one you love is ill.”
When Jesus heard this he said,
“This illness is not to end in death,
but is for the glory of God,
that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
So when he heard that he was ill,
he remained for two days in the place where he was.
Then after this he said to his disciples,
"Let us go back to Judea.”
When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus
had already been in the tomb for four days.
When Martha heard that Jesus was coming,
she went to meet him;
but Mary sat at home.
Martha said to Jesus,
“Lord, if you had been here,
my brother would not have died.
But even now I know that whatever you ask of God,
God will give you.”
Jesus said to her,
“Your brother will rise.”
Martha said,
“I know he will rise,
in the resurrection on the last day.”
Jesus told her,
“I am the resurrection and the life;
whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live,
and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.
Do you believe this?”
She said to him, “Yes, Lord.
I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God,
the one who is coming into the world.”
He became perturbed and deeply troubled, and said,
“Where have you laid him?”
They said to him, “Sir, come and see.”
And Jesus wept.
So the Jews said, “See how he loved him.”
But some of them said,
“Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man
have done something so that this man would not have died?”
So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb.
It was a cave, and a stone lay across it.
Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”
Martha, the dead man’s sister, said to him,
“Lord, by now there will be a stench;
he has been dead for four days.”
Jesus said to her,
“Did I not tell you that if you believe
you will see the glory of God?”
So they took away the stone.
And Jesus raised his eyes and said,
“Father, I thank you for hearing me.
I know that you always hear me;
but because of the crowd here I have said this,
that they may believe that you sent me.”
And when he had said this,
He cried out in a loud voice,
“Lazarus, come out!”
The dead man came out,
tied hand and foot with burial bands,
and his face was wrapped in a cloth.
So Jesus said to them,
“Untie him and let him go.”
Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary
and seen what he had done began to believe in him.
Reflection
Have you experienced the suffering or the death of a close friend? I remember when a friend from high school passed away. He was a very nice guy, friend of everyone. We were around 24 years old when it happened. I remember the mass with a lot of classmates with the family of our friend. We could understand how someone we knew, we loved, we appreciated, and who was our friend and the same age could not be any more with us.
Something similar happened to Jesus in today’s Gospel. Jesus cried. Jesus cried for a beloved friend who passed away and left behind him and his sisters. Jesus went to be with the family and console them. Jesus does not only cries with us but also loves us, gets tired, is misunderstood, betrayed, suffers like us. Jesus knows what we feel and so come to be with us in our humanity. He is a truly friend who accompanies in our experiences both good and bad.
However, Jesus is not only with us and is like us. He is more than that. He offered his friend a precious gift: resurrection. He allowed his friend Lazarous to be back to life for another period, but he died again. With us it is not only a moment but eternity. What a gift from our best friend Jesus. Jesus is not only a human like us, he is also God, our Savior who offers us his divine life. Who in sharing our humanity make us partakers of his Divinity.
Let us remember our friends who are with us at al times and ask from Jesus, our faithful friend, to grant them his blessing and to us the grace to be good friends of our brothers and sisters.
Lord Jesus, thank you for being our divine friend, thank you for the grace of eternal life. We ask you to teach us to be as good friend as you are.
Reflection Questions
When I face the suffering or loss of someone I love, do I truly believe that Jesus is present with me as a faithful friend who understands my pain and walks with me?
How can I imitate Jesus’ friendship in my daily life, bringing comfort, hope, and life to others, especially in moments of sorrow or need?





