If Lazarus’s soul, having been dead four days, was already in the glory of God, why did Jesus cry and then resurrect him?

Hello, Father Angelo,

Yesterday, I was attending the funeral Mass of a family member and I started to have some doubts.

I do know that after death there is another life because our soul is immortal.  So, why do we have to wait until the end times?

If Lazarus ‘ soul, having been dead four days, was already in the glory of God, why did Jesus cry and then resurrect him?

I beg you to solve the doubts that are troubling me.

Thank you.

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The priest’s answer

Dearest,

1.The end times are attended for the resurrection of the body, while the soul – as you justly observe – is immortal.

2. Right after death, precisely because is immortal, the soul appears in front of Christ’s tribunal, as the Scriptures remind: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive recompense, according to what he did in the body, whether good or evil” (2 Corinthians 5, 10).

3. This will happen immediately after death, as Our Lord made us clearly understand in the parable of the rich man who was greedily eating and the poor Lazarus: as soon as they died one went to hell and the other one to the bosom of Abraham (cfr. Luke 16, 22-23).

Justly, the Church teaches that immediately after death, the particular judgment occurs and it determines a soul’s eternal destiny.

4. On the last day, when the resurrection of the dead will happen, there will be the final judgment in front of everyone.

5. By the way, regarding Lazarus it must be remembered that in the Gospels there are two distinct subjects by the name of Lazarus.

The first one is the Lazarus of the evangelical parable that was just mentioned, who everyday was at the door of the rich man who was greedily eating, but he was not allowed to even have the crumbs falling from that man’s table.

The Lord says that when Lazarus died, he was taken by the angels in the bosom of Abraham.

We must pay attention: it is not said that he was taken in the glory of God, but in the bosom of Abraham, next to Abraham (Lk 16, 22).

No man at this point entered the glory of God because the heaven remained closed as a result of Adam’s sin.

Jesus Christ has opened heaven with his resurrection. Only then the righteous waiting have been allowed to enter in the glory of God.

6. In the meantime, those who lived holily or were purified in the Purgatory went into the bosom of Abraham, that is, they had entered the limbo, which is not paradise, but a place of natural happiness.

7. Then, there is the other Lazarus, the one whom you talk about, brother of Martha and Mary whom the Lord brought back to life after he had been dead finor four days and buried.

This Lazarus, once he had died and before being resuscitated by Our Lord, where he had been?

Did he go through the particular judgment?  Did he go to Purgatory or in the limbo?

For sure he did not enter the glory of God for the reason that I just told you about, and that is because the Lord had not yet risen.

For him, we must say, there was a miraculous intervention from God.  As for a miracle performed by Jesus, the soul re-entered the body and made him alive again, likewise the soul – although separated from the body – did not appear in front of the tribunal of God, but it remained in a state of waiting.  So, the soul did not enter in any of those states that are the result of the particular judgment:  paradise, purgatory, hell.

8. Why did Jesus cry if he knew that he would have resuscitated Lazarus? 

It is important to remember what the holy book says: “When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping, he became perturbed and deeply troubled, and said, “where have you laid him?”  They said to him, “Sir, come and see.” And Jesus wept” (John 11, 33- 35).

It must be noted the expression used in the Gospel: Jesus became “perturbed”.

Saint Thomas says that two things contributed to perturb Christ’s heart and to cause His tears: “the first one, Jesus cries because of the death inflicted to this man as a result of sin; the second one, he cries because of the cruelty of death and the devil.

For this Christ wanted to have feelings of pain and disdain” (Commentary on the Gospel of St. John 11,33).

Here is, therefore, the reason why he cries, although he knew that shortly he would have resuscitated Lazarus.

To this reason, we can add that Jesus cries also because He fully participates in the pain of those present.

I bless you, I remember you in my prayers and I wish you all the best.

Father Angelo

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