Two afterthoughts on Lent.5.A.....

 

Although my blog is called “Homilies and Occasional Thoughts,” this post should be called “Afterthoughts.”

My original post of this Sunday’s homily featured the picture above, with a note that I could not find the name of its artist or the source. An old friend and former parishioner promptly emailed to tell me that the painting came from a remarkable source, Vie de Jesus Mafa, a catechetical project from Northern Cameroon that aimed at helping Mafa communities teach the Bible.

You can read the remarkable story here and take a look at the catalogue of images from Vanderbilt University's digital archive here. 

And that’s not the only afterthought I have to share. On Twitter this morning I saw this quotation from Pope Francis about today’s Gospel of the healing of Lazarus. The Pope said: “Here we can experience firsthand that God is life and gives life, yet takes on the tragedy of death. Jesus could have avoided the death of his friend Lazarus, but he wanted to share in our suffering for the death of people dear to us, and above all, he wished to demonstrate God’s dominion over death.”

I found this emphasis on Christ’s sharing in our grief over the death of those we loved very helpful.