CV NEWS FEED // Pope Francis wrote the preface to the Italian edition of a book written by Jesuit priest Fr. James Martin called “Come Forth: The Raising of Lazarus and the Promise of Jesus’s Greatest Miracle.”
“Father James Martin, the author of many other books that I know and appreciate, deserves our gratitude for this new text devoted to what he calls ‘Jesus’s greatest miracle’: the resurrection of Lazarus,” wrote Pope Francis, according to Vatican News, which published the full text of the preface on June 3. The book was published in English in September 2023.
Fr. Martin is founder of the controversial LGBT ministry “Outreach,” and editor at large of America Magazine, the official magazine of the Jesuits in the United States. He is also the author of the controversial book “Building a Bridge.”
In his preface, Pope Francis praised Fr. Martin for his approach to writing about Scripture, and for reading Scripture in a loving way, rather than “detached” or “coldly scientific.”
“Father James has the perspective of a person who has fallen in love with the Word of God,” Pope Francis added:
As I read the careful arguments and exegeses of the biblical scholars he cites, it made me wonder how often we manage to approach Scripture with the “hunger” of a person who knows that that word really is the Word of God.
The Pope also wrote about how the book highlights the fundamental Christian belief in the resurrection of the body.
“Jesus didn’t just talk about eternal life; He gave it to us,” Pope Francis wrote. “He didn’t just say ‘I am the resurrection’; He also resurrected Lazarus, who’d been dead for three days.”
He also reflected on how Jesus restores life to souls that are dead in sin.
“All of us, then, are Lazarus. Rooting himself firmly in the Ignatian tradition, Father Martin brings us directly into the story of this friend of Jesus,” he continued:
We’re His friends, too—“dead” as we sometimes are on account of our sins, our failings and infidelities, the despondency that discourages us and crushes our spirits. Jesus is hardly afraid to get close to us—even when we “reek” like a dead body that’s been buried for three days.
Pope Francis wrote that despite the physical death that is experienced in this life, “we men and women are destined for eternity. All of us are.”
Though human life has a starting point, he added, “our lives all point toward the infinite.”
“What Scripture calls ‘eternal life’ is the life that awaits us after death,” he concluded:
It’s the life we can already touch right here and right now, as long as we dwell not in the egoism that saddens us but in the love that widens, that dilates our hearts. We are made for eternity.
The resurrection of Lazarus—whom we know is our friend, thanks to this book by James Martin—reminds us of that fact, and bears witness to it.
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