Ez 37,12-14; Psalm 129 (130); Jn 11,1-45 (cf. TQA05D)
Beatitude, dear relatives of our brother Shibly, dear Brothers and Sisters,
May the Lord give you His peace!
1. We are gathered together to accompany our brother Shibly on the last stretch of his earthly pilgrimage and to express our closeness to his wife Ruby and his sister, his children, daughters-in-law and grandchildren, and to all his family.
Shibly was a gift from the Lord for all of us and a special person. He knew how to live his entire life with faith and gratitude. Each of us could remember and tell of moments in which we received a good word, help, encouragement from him. I, if I can celebrate for him this evening, it is because he taught me to celebrate the Mass in Arabic. Whilst he accompanied me from one place to another, I tried to read the parts of the Mass and he patiently corrected my pronunciation.
2. A little while ago we listened together to a very beautiful passage, which speaks to us of the resurrection of Lazarus, the friend of the Lord. It is a passage set in Bethany.
Reading this passage, we discover many things:
- we discover our fragility in the face of the death of people we love,
- we discover that Jesus is stronger than death,
- we discover that for Jesus we are friends and that He wants the fullness of life for us.
When faced with the death of a loved one, we also have the same reactions as Martha, and we say to Jesus: “If you had been here, my brother would not have died”. We repeat to ourselves that it is not right for a good person who has always lived trusting in God and doing good should have to die.
Sometimes we have Mary's reaction, and we can only cry, because we only perceive the pain of the loss of our brother, we see in death only what has been taken away from us.
3. The Gospel tells us, however, that it is necessary to fix our gaze on Jesus and it is good that we listen to His word again, that we look at death from His point of view. The words of Jesus are extraordinarily strong and, if we are able to truly listen to them, they remove all fear from our hearts and place great trust and peace within us: "I am the resurrection and the life saith the Lord; whosoever believeth in Me, even if he die, will live; whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die" and Jesus then concludes with a question that He addresses to Martha but also to each of us: "Do you believe this?"
Jesus is the Resurrection and the life; and the moment we welcome Him, death no longer has power over us because we enter with Him into the very life of God. Believing means welcoming Jesus and letting ourselves be welcomed by Him. If we believe in Him, we are alive forever, we are alive in God.
4. For Jesus, like Lazarus, we too are friends, and we are dear to Him. Jesus is moved and weeps at our death. For Jesus, however, the moment of our death can become the moment in which the glory of God is manifested, the luminous power of His love, for He is our life and resurrection.
5. Our brother Shibly lived his entire life always within this friendship with Jesus and he was a great gift for all of us who are here today: for his family, for us friars of the Custody, for all the people who knew him.
Now, for Shibly, the earthly pilgrimage is over, and he has reached his destination. With his kawas costume he now accompanies the Lord in the light of the heavenly Jerusalem. Now he can enjoy communion with God, the closeness of Our Lady, of Saint Francis and of all the saints.
Now he can rejoice in heaven together with his loved ones, he can find Fra Sante who was a second father to him, he can intercede for his family and also for us friars of the Custody, and he can ask the Lord, for the Holy Land, the gift of peace. Amen