My Happy Place

Seeing how a happy place needs a happy person

03/26/2023

Jn 11:3-7, 17, 20-27, 33b-45 The sisters of Lazarus sent word to Jesus, saying, “Master, the one you love is ill.” When Jesus heard this he said, “This illness is not to end in death,  but is for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. He became perturbed and deeply troubled, and said, "Where have you laid him?” And Jesus wept. So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay across it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” So they took away the stone. And Jesus raised his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you for hearing me. I know that you always hear me; but because of the crowd here I have said this, that they may believe that you sent me.” And when he had said this, He cried out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, tied hand and foot with burial bands, and his face was wrapped in a cloth. So Jesus said to them, “Untie him and let him go.”

Do you have a happy place? Are you familiar with that expression? A happy place is where you feel at ease, where you feel loved, and where you feel a deep sense of contentment. It is the one place you would rather be than anywhere else on earth. This past week on Spring Break a lot of people went to their happy place. For example, I saw pictures on social media of some families skiing on the sides of picturesque white mountains. Other families splashed in the waves or soaked up the sun on sandy beaches (to look more like me!).

Others spent time in the deep woods, camping, hiking or just listening to the silence of nature. Being in the woods always reminds me of that Brad Paisley song, “I want to check you for ticks.” Another more elevated thought was from Henry David Thoreau: “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” Waldon Pond, therefore, was Thoreau’s happy place. Do you know what my happy place is? My happy place is Fort Smith, when everyone else leaves for Spring Break! And there are no ticks either!

Today’s gospel passage from John 11 is obviously the famous story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. But I think a curious fact that adds another layer of meaning is that Bethany and the home of Lazarus, Martha, and Mary was Jesus’ happy place. In other words, Bethany is where Jesus would have gone on his Spring Break, where he felt at ease, where Jesus felt loved, where our Lord found deep contentment.

It was in Bethany that Martha complained of doing all the chores while Mary sat at Jesus’ feet. It was at Bethany that Mary poured the expensive aromatic ointment on Jesus’ feet preparing his body for burial. It was at Bethany that Jesus spent the last week of his life during that first Holy Week, from Palm Sunday to Holy Thursday. And it was from Bethany that Jesus left earth and ascended into heaven, the last place he visited. When Jesus wanted to get away from it all, he went to Bethany and spent time with Lazarus, Martha, and Mary.

And I am convinced that this detail of Jesus’ happy place can shed a lot of light on the shortest sentence in the Bible which we heard today, namely, John 11:35, “Jesus wept.” How so? Well, why would Jesus weep now on this particular occasion? After all, Jesus had raised other people from the dead – like Jairus’ 12-year-old daughter in Luke 8, or the widow of Nain’s son in Luke 7 – but on neither of those occasions did Jesus shed a single tear that we know of. Why not?

Well, undoubtedly Jesus loved them, too. He loves everyone, and died for everyone. But Lazarus was part of Jesus’ happy place, and Lazarus death touched Jesus heart deeply, because now Jesus’ happy place was touched with sorrow. In other words, what makes a certain place a truly “happy place” is the people we share it with. With all due respect to Henry David Thoreau, people are what make places happy.

My friends, it is great if your happy place is the snow-capped mountains, or the sandy sun-soaked beaches, or the quiet whispering woods, or even Fort Smith when everyone else leaves. But I also hope and pray that coming to Mass and being inside this church will feel like your happy place too. Now, you might be thinking, “Are you kidding? Church is boring and I can’t wait to get out of here!”

But remember what makes a happy place truly happy are the people you spend time with there. And besides me, and your family, and your friends, in this place (in this church) you also spend time with Jesus. Over the course of a day, I love to see people just stop in here at church and spend five minutes with Jesus, who is always present in the Tabernacle. I pray that for those people, those five minutes this church felt like their happy place, no matter what problems or pressures or preoccupations they are carrying.

Whenever people pop in on Jesus I think of the numerous times that Jesus popped in on Lazarus, Martha, and Mary in Bethany. And those siblings must have been thrilled, and so is Jesus when we spontaneously stop in and see him. And in a couple of weeks our close Friend Jesus will die (like Lazarus died) and we, too, may feel like weeping (as Jesus wept) on Good Friday as we stand before the open and empty Tabernacle, knowing Jesus is not present here. Why? Well, because what makes a happy place truly happy is the people we share that place with, especially Jesus.

Praised be Jesus Christ!