“Jesus is not afraid to come close to us, even when we ‘stink’ like a dead person buried for three days,” the pope wrote in the preface to the Italian edition of Jesuit Father James Martin’s book, “Come Forth: The Raising of Lazarus and the Promise of Jesus’s Greatest Miracle.”
Recognizing their welcome of and witness to Christ, Pope Francis has approved changing the liturgical feast of St. Martha to include her sister and brother, Mary and Lazarus, on the church’s universal calendar of feast days.
Without making room for God’s word in their heart, people will never be able to welcome and love all human life, Pope Francis said.
