MARY, OUR MOTHER

SCRIPTURE COMMENTARY #406

Jesus said: "Where have you laid him?" They say to him: "Lord, come and see." And Jesus wept. The Jews therefore said: "Behold how he loved him." But some of them said: "Could not he that opened the eyes of the man born blind have caused that this man should not die?" Jesus therefore again groaning in himself, cometh to the sepulchre. Now it was a cave; and a stone was laid over it. Jesus saith: "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith to him: "Lord, by this time he stinketh, for he is now of four days." Jesus saith to her: "Did not I say to thee that if thou believe, thou shalt see the glory of God?" They took therefore the stone away. And Jesus lifting up his eyes, said: "Father, I give thee thanks that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people who stand about have I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me." When he had said these things, he cried with a loud voice: "Lazarus, come forth." And presently he that had been dead came forth, bound feet and hands with winding bands. And his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus said to them: "Loose him and let him go." Many therefore of the Jews, who were come to Mary and Martha and had seen the things that Jesus did, believed in him. (John 11:34-45)

THE ESPECIAL OBJECT OF THIS MIRACLE: The time of our Lord's Passion and Death was at hand, and He wrought this mighty miracle beforehand in order that the faith of His disciples, and more especially of His apostles, might be strengthened, and "that they might believe" and not doubt when they saw their Lord and Master in the hour of His abasement; and most of all to enable them to hope, when they saw His body laid in the sepulcher, that He who had raised up Lazarus would Himself rise again.

[From 'A Practical Commentary on Holy Scripture' by Bishop Knecht, D.D.]
(1899 Douay-Rheims Bible)