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| The Rolling Stones in 1964. |
(Fifth Sunday
of Lent (A): This homily was given on April 2, 2017 at St. Pius X Church,
Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond Suriani.
Read Ezekiel 27: 12-14; John 11: 1-45.)
[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Fifth Sunday of Lent 2017]
I can’t get no satisfaction.
If you were
around back in 1965 and listened to your AM radio on a regular basis (like I
did), then you know what that is: it’s a line from an old Rolling Stones’ song
that made it to Number 1 that year.
I can’t get no satisfaction, I can’t get
no satisfaction
‘Cause I try and I try and I try and I
try
I can’t get no—oh no, no, no …
(Just be
thankful I didn’t try to sing that! I
spared you all an extra Lenten penance!)
Now there are
very few times when I will look to the Rolling Stones for a spiritual
insight—but this is one of those rare occasions. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards are definitely
not my philosophers of choice, but I
believe they’re onto something here.
Because the
fact of the matter is, I “can’t get no satisfaction” in this life, and neither
can you. Here I mean perfect satisfaction, perfect fulfillment, perfect happiness—which I think was what
Jagger and Richards were getting at when they wrote those lyrics. Of course, in one way or another, many of us
do try—and try—and try—and try to attain perfect satisfaction during our time
on this earth, but we always end up falling short of the goal.
And we always
will—on this side of the grave.
The perfect
will come only when the words of today’s first reading are fulfilled for us:
when the Lord “opens our grave,” so to speak, and gives us eternal life in the
resurrection.
That’s
reality. That’s the truth. The problem comes when we, consciously or
unconsciously, fail to accept this truth and conduct our lives as if we can find perfect satisfaction here. That’s a problem not only because it can lead
us into serious sin, but also because it can lead us to experience incredible
frustration—the kind of frustration that we can almost “feel” in the lyrics of
that song: “I try, and I try, and I try, and I try—but I can’t get it!”
This kind of
unrealistic perspective on things can also blind us to the many blessings the
Lord has given to us—and is giving to us—in
our life. Let me give you an example of
what I mean. I visited a 77-year-old woman
in the nursing home recently. She was
there, not as a permanent resident but rather for some physical rehabilitation. And she was understandably down when I saw
her. She’d much rather be home—and
healthy—and have her independence back.
We’d all feel
the same way, I’m sure, in similar circumstances.
But as we
talked that day, I discerned that this woman also had some unrealistic
expectations—unrealistic expectations about the level of satisfaction she’ll be
able to attain during her remaining years on earth. And I discerned that those unrealistic
expectations were affecting her emotionally—and even spiritually—in a negative
way. So I said to her at one point:
It’s very clear to me that you have a desire for perfect health and perfect happiness—and that’s good! God put that desire in you; it’s really the desire for heaven. But you can’t expect that kind of perfection here. Here on this earth we’re never going to be perfectly satisfied—and we’ll only get frustrated if we think we can be. You told me that you were diagnosed with late stage ovarian cancer 25 years ago—a cancer that very few people beat. But you did. You told me that more recently you were diagnosed with another form of cancer, but that you’ve responded very well to the treatments they’ve given you. Praise God! You have a lot to be grateful for. But that’s still not enough, is it? You’re not perfectly satisfied. That’s because we don’t just want some health, we want perfect health.
You just showed me some really nice pictures of your great-grandchildren. What a blessing! You know, my mother died 24 days before her first grandchild was born—so I know what a great gift it is to see grandchildren born into this world. And here you’ve been blessed to see your great-grandchildren. But that’s not enough, is it? It’s never enough. Even if you were blessed to see your great-great-great-great-great grandchildren born into this world, that would NOT completely satisfy you—nor should it.
This world wasn’t made to completely satisfy us! Only heaven can do that.
I mention all this
today because of this gospel story we just heard: the story of the raising of
Lazarus from the dead. Of all the
miracles that Jesus performed during his 3-year earthly ministry, this one was
certainly the most extraordinary, the most spectacular. Yes, he had raised others from the dead prior
to this (like the daughter of Jairus, and the son of the widow of Nain), but in
this case the guy had been dead for four days!
And yet, as
incredible as this miracle was, it did
not completely satisfy. It did not bring
complete satisfaction to Martha, or to Mary—or even to Lazarus.
That’s because
this resurrection was only temporary!
Yes, Lazarus was raised from the dead—yes, he walked out of his tomb at
the command of Jesus after being in the grave for the better part of a
week. But, lest we forget, Jesus brought
Lazarus back to THIS life—this earthly life—this imperfect life—this temporal,
mortal existence.
Consequently,
Lazarus knew that he would eventually have to die again! He knew that even as he was walking (or maybe
I should say, “shuffling”) out of the tomb. Martha knew it, too—as did Mary and everyone
else who was there that day.
So, as happy as
they all must have been, they were definitely not perfectly satisfied!
But now they
are! At least Martha and Mary and
Lazarus are!
They’re
perfectly satisfied because they’re now sharing fully in the resurrection of Jesus Christ—the resurrection to eternal
life that was prefigured and foreshadowed in this miracle of the raising of
Lazarus from the dead.
So the bottom
line is this (and I’ll conclude with this thought): Don’t
try to get on earth what you can only get in heaven.
That’s the
Lord’s message to us today at this Mass: Do not try to get here on earth what
you can only get in heaven.
If we keep in
mind the fact that perfect
satisfaction is for heaven only, chances are we’ll keep things in perspective
here on earth, and we’ll make the effort to stay on the narrow road that leads
to God’s eternal kingdom.
If, on the
other hand, we try to find our ultimate satisfaction here in this life, in all
likelihood we will find ourselves “singing along,” so to speak, with the
Rolling Stones.
And that, in
this case at least, is not a happy song to sing.
