Jesus Wept and Waited (March 22, 2026)

Welcome to The Daily Catholic Deep Dive, the daily show that connects the dots between the Bible, the Catechism, and the Catholic life.

Ever wonder what the hidden connection is between today's Old and New Testament readings? Or how the central theme of The Bible in a Year aligns with The Catechism in a Year? We even look at how the daily Rosary meditation and the Saint of the Day tie it all together.

Every day, we take the massive amount of spiritual content you love—from Fr. Mike Schmitz to the Daily Rosary, Mass readings, and Sunday homilies—and weave them into a single, witty, and insightful conversation.

Do you feel lost after listening to all these daily podcasts? Join our AI hosts as they find the "Golden Thread" that ties them all together. It’s the ultimate daily synthesis for the busy Catholic soul.

Today’s Sources:

• Daily Bible Reading - March 22, 2026 | USCCB (Reading 1: Ezekiel 37:12-14; Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 130:1-8; Reading 2: Romans 8:8-11; Gospel: John 11:1-45)

 • Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2024) — The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) (Joshua 1-4, Psalm 123)

• Day 81: Christ’s Paschal Mystery — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) (Paragraphs 571–576) 

• "Autobiography: Epilogue" | 5th Sunday of Lent (Fr. Mike's Homily) #sundayhomily — Sundays with Ascension 

• "The Resurrection and the Life": Archbishop Weisenburger's Sunday Homily (March 22, 2026) — Archdiocese of Detroit 

• Cardinal Blase Cupich's Homily for March 22nd, 2026 — CatholicChicago 

• Jesus Wept - Bishop Barron's Sunday Sermon — Bishop Robert Barron

 • March 22, 2026 | Catholic Daily Reflections | Formed — Catholic Daily Reflections with Tim Gray 

• 𝗔𝗿𝗲 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗔𝗙𝗥𝗔𝗜𝗗 𝘁𝗼 𝗗𝗜𝗘? | 22 March 2026 HOMILY with Fr. Jerry Orbos, SVD | Fifth Sunday of Lent — Fr. Jerry Orbos, SVD

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the Sunday special of Daily Catholic Deep Dive. If you are first time here, we're here to connect the DOS between the Bible, the Catechism, and your daily life. Every day we go over the Daily Mass readings, Father Mike Schmitz's Bible in a year, and Catechism in a Year, plus other popular Catholic podcasts and videos released today we find interesting. If you feel a bit overwhelmed by all the daily Catholic listening, don't worry. We're here to find that one golden thread that ties it all together. Let's dive in. Today is March 22nd, 2026.

SPEAKER_00 0:31

Glad to be here for the Sunday special.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

Yeah, it's a big one today. So um imagine calling 911 because your house is literally on fire.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Okay. Pure panic.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Right. And the operator answers, they listen to you screaming for help, and they calmly say, I love you, I'm on my way. And then you they just intentionally wait four days to show up.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

Wow. Yeah, that's rough. By the time they arrive, everything is just ashes. And I mean, that is essentially what Jesus does to his absolute best friends in today's readings. And we really need to figure out why. Yeah. It is arguably one of the most uh confronting moments in all of the gospels because it forces us to look at that agonizing gap between, you know, our desperate plea for help and the actual arrival of grace, which is just never a comfortable place to sit.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

Trevor Burrus, Jr. No, not at all. And that tension is really the bedrock of what we are unpacking on this deep dive today. So just to give you the menu of what we're looking at, we are diving into the daily mass readings, focusing heavily on this breathtaking connection between the prophet Ezekiel and the Gospel of John.

SPEAKER_00 1:31

Such a good connection.

SPEAKER_01 1:32

Right. We are also pulling from day eighty one of Bible in a year and day eighty one of Catechism in a year. Plus, since it's our Sunday special, we're synthesizing a ton of insights from the Sunday homilies of Bishop Robert Barron, Father Mike Schmitz, Cardinal Blase Kupic, Archbishop Weisenberger, Dr. Tim Gray, and Father Jerry Orbos.

SPEAKER_00 1:52

It is a phenomenal stack of sources today.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

It really is.

SPEAKER_00 1:55

And weaving through all these different voices is one very distinct golden thread. It's this idea of waiting in the dark, um, remembering God's past promises when you feel totally abandoned, and ultimately figuring out how you're supposed to live your like your bonus chapter once the grace finally does arrive.

SPEAKER_01 2:14

I love that phrase, bonus chapter. And I want to start with that promise, actually, because the connection between the Old Testament and the New Testament today is just staggering. Oh, absolutely. So the first reading from Ezekiel chapter 37, verses 12 to 14, God delivers this incredibly bold cosmic promise to the Israelites. He literally says, I will open your graves and have you rise from them.

SPEAKER_00 2:37

Which is a huge statement.

SPEAKER_01 2:38

Massive. It's this sweeping national prophecy. And it sounds, you know, almost metaphorical, but then in the gospel today, from John chapter 11, verses 1 to 45, the metaphor just vanishes.

SPEAKER_00 2:49

Right. It gets very real. Exactly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:51

We get the immediate, literal flesh and blood fulfillment of that ancient promise with the raising of Lazarus.

SPEAKER_00 2:57

Yeah, the shift from the macro to the micro there is really striking. God moves from this broad, sweeping national promise to a duckly intimate personal reality right in the dirt of Bethany. But, you know, what stands out to you when you look at the pacing of how Jesus actually fulfills that promise?

SPEAKER_01 3:15

The pacing is exactly what Bishop Barron highlighted, and frankly, I find it kind of maddening. Yeah. So Jesus gets word that his dear friend Lazarus is sick. The messengers basically say, Lord, the one you love is ill. And the natural human expectation is that Jesus drops everything.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

Aaron Ross Powell Right, grabs the disciples and sprints to death.

SPEAKER_01 3:35

But instead, the gospel explicitly notes that he bizarrely decides to stay exactly where he is for two more days.

SPEAKER_00 3:41

Two whole days.

SPEAKER_01 3:42

So here is my struggle with this. If God has the power to fix a tragedy instantly but chooses to let his friend suffer in agony for days, doesn't that make him seem incredibly cruel? Like how does theology reconcile that kind of delay?

SPEAKER_00 3:55

Well, that is the pivotal question. Right. And Archbishop Weissenberger tackles this head on. He points out a major flaw in our default operating system as human beings.

SPEAKER_01 4:03

Which is what?

SPEAKER_00 4:04

That we constantly want God to act on our schedule.

SPEAKER_01 4:07

Oh, guilty.

SPEAKER_00 4:08

Right. We operate under this transactional mindset. Like Jesus loves me, I ask for help, therefore he should rush to my side immediately. But Jesus isn't governed by human affection. And he certainly isn't governed by our anxious expectations. He is governed entirely by the Father's will.

SPEAKER_01 4:25

With the goal of manifesting God's glory.

SPEAKER_00 4:27

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 4:28

Which I mean, I imagine is a really tough pill to swallow when you are the one sitting in the waiting room watching your brother slip away.

SPEAKER_00 4:34

Oh, incredibly tough.

SPEAKER_01 4:35

Because by the time Jesus finally strolls into Bethany, Lazarus hasn't just died. He has been dead for four days. Yeah. And Bishop Barron notes something so heartbreaking here. Both Martha and Mary, completely independently of one another, greet Jesus with the exact same devastated sentence. They both say, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

SPEAKER_00 4:57

Yeah, that reproach is just it's devastating because it is so incredibly human. Yeah. And as Bishop Barron points out, that specific cry of frustration that is the birth of all theodicy.

SPEAKER_01 5:09

Right. Theodicy being the theological term for trying to understand why a good God permits evil.

SPEAKER_00 5:14

Exactly. Because every single one of us has been Martha or Mary at some point. Like we have all looked at a tragedy in our own lives, looked up at the sky, and asked, Where were you? If you had been here, this wouldn't have happened.

SPEAKER_01 5:27

Yeah. It's a universal feeling, but Cardinal Kupic takes that perceived absence and kind of flips it, doesn't he?

SPEAKER_00 5:34

He does. He brings up Samuel Beckett's famous play, Waiting for Godot, to illustrate how we often feel like we were just waiting endlessly for a God who never shows up. But Kupic argues that God is intimately present precisely in that agonizing waiting period. Right. He's present in the messiness, the mortality, and even the literal stench of our existence. Because remember, when Jesus asks them to roll away the stone, Martha practically objects. She warns him there will be a stench because it's been four days.

SPEAKER_01 6:03

Yeah, that detail about the stench isn't just a throwaway line, is it?

SPEAKER_00 6:07

Not at all. It is dainty practical. In the ancient Middle East, a tomb after four days in the heat would be physically horrific. And furthermore, in the Jewish tradition of that time, there was a belief that the soul hovered near the body for three days, hoping to re-enter.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

Oh, I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_00 6:23

Yeah. So by the fourth day, decomposition physically sets in and the soul departs completely. The fourth day meant it was irrevocably, hopelessly over. Wow. So Kupit's point is that God doesn't run away from the rotting, uncomfortable, broken parts of our lives. He steps right into the stench.

SPEAKER_01 6:43

That reframes the delay completely. Like he waited four days, so there could be absolutely no doubt that this was a divine rescue, not just, you know, a resuscitation.

SPEAKER_00 6:51

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 6:52

And that brings us to this masterclass in faith between Jesus and Martha, which was analyzed by both Dr. Tim Gray and Bishop Barron. Jesus tells Martha, Your brother will rise. And Martha gives this perfectly orthodox textbook answer. She says, I know he will rise in the resurrection on the last day.

SPEAKER_00 7:09

Right. She has the theology perfectly memorized.

SPEAKER_01 7:12

Yeah, she views the resurrection as a calendar date in the distant future.

SPEAKER_00 7:15

But she misses the reality standing right in front of her. Jesus corrects her with the ultimate ego i me statement. And to unpack that technically for a moment, ego ime is Greek for I am.

SPEAKER_01 7:27

Which goes back to Moses.

SPEAKER_00 7:28

Exactly. It directly references the divine name God revealed to Moses at the burning bush in Exodus. Jesus doesn't say, I will cause the resurrection eventually. He says, I am the resurrection and the life. Wow. He is claiming the divine name and telling her that resurrection isn't some future event, it's a living relationship with him right here in the present.

SPEAKER_01 7:48

I am. I love that. He is pulling the power of eternity into the current moment. But okay, right after this soaring, triumphant theological declaration, we get the shortest verse in the entire Bible. Jesus wept. Yeah. And I have to push back on this a little bit. If Jesus is God and he fully knows he is about 10 seconds away from raising Lazarus from the dead and turning their mourning into joy, why weep? Like, isn't it almost performative?

SPEAKER_00 8:13

I mean, that is a cynical but completely natural way to look at it from the outside. Right. But let's look at the nature of God being revealed here. Bishop Barron describes this so beautifully. Jesus has the power over life and death. Yes. But he also possesses a human heart that just breaks out of deep sympathy for our pain.

SPEAKER_01 8:34

Yeah, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 8:35

He doesn't dismiss Mary's grief or tell her to, you know, stop crying because I'm about to fix it. He literally sits in the dirt and weeps with her in her frustration and loss before he changes the reality. It reveals a God who validates our sorrow, even when he knows the ending.

SPEAKER_01 8:52

That physical act of God weeping with us is profound, but you know, eventually the tears stop, the crisis passes, and we have to survive the aftermath of the miracle.

SPEAKER_00 9:01

The hard part.

SPEAKER_01 9:01

Right. And that psychological hurdle, surviving the aftermath and holding on to faith, is exactly what the ancient Israelites faced in our daily listening.

SPEAKER_00 9:08

Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 9:09

Because on day 81 of Bible in a year, we are looking at Joshua chapters 1 to 4. And the context is massive. Moses is dead. The people have been wandering in the desert for 40 years. Now Joshua is in charge, leading this new generation to cross the Jordan River into the Promised Land. And just like the Red Sea, the waters miraculously start flowing and they cross on dry ground.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

Aaron Ross Powell It's a deliberate historical echo. God is showing this new generation his power firsthand, you know, providing them with a concrete foundation for their faith before they enter enemy territory.

SPEAKER_01 9:45

Aaron Powell But human nature is just incredibly fickle.

SPEAKER_00 9:48

Oh, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 9:49

We are prone to a severe form of spiritual amnesia. We forget in the dark what we absolutely knew was true in the light. Like you survive the crisis, you get the miraculous medical test results, the river parts for you, and then like three weeks later your car breaks down and you're suddenly convinced God has abandoned you forever.

SPEAKER_00 10:05

Aaron Ross Powell We constantly reset to zero. Yes. And God, knowing the psychological fragility of human beings, he preempts this. He doesn't just let them cross the dry riverbed and casually march on.

SPEAKER_01 10:15

No. He forces them to stop. He commands Joshua to have twelve men pull twelve massive stones from the middle of the dry riverbed and physically carry them to the other side to build a memorial. Right. To put this in modern terms, it's like keeping a brag document for a corporate performance review.

SPEAKER_00 10:32

Okay, I like that analogy.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

In the business world, you write down your wins throughout the year, because otherwise, by December, you'll forget everything good you did. God is basically commanding them to build a spiritual brag document. Yeah. So I'm asking you, listening right now, what are your twelve stones? When you are stuck in your own four-day wait at the tomb, do you have a journal or a physical reminder of the specific times God fought for you in the past to ground your faith in the present?

SPEAKER_00 11:01

Building that memorial is crucial for survival. And the theological weight of this crossing is brilliantly unpacked on day eighty one of Catechism in a year, specifically covering paragraphs 571 to 576.

SPEAKER_01 11:13

Right. Father Mike's section on this.

SPEAKER_00 11:15

Yeah, Father Mike Schmitz walks us through how the church views Christ's paschal mystery, which encompasses his suffering, death, and resurrection. The catechism really emphasizes that Jesus did not come to abolish the old law, but to fulfill it perfectly.

SPEAKER_01 11:29

So how does the physical crossing of the Jordan River logically map onto the paschal mystery?

SPEAKER_00 11:34

Well, think of it as the ultimate crossing. Joshua led the ancient Israelites through the waters of the Jordan to deliver them from physical wandering into the physical promised land.

SPEAKER_01 11:43

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 11:44

Jesus, who, as Father Mike repeatedly reminds us, was a Jewish rabbi acting in total fulfillment of his heritage acts as the new Joshua. He leads all of humanity through the waters of death and sin into the eternal promised land of the resurrection. Wow. The physical rescue in the Book of Joshua is the historical blueprint pointing directly to the spiritual rescue in the Gospel of John. And Father Mike makes a point to express the immense debt of gratitude we owe the Jewish people for safeguarding this history. Because it provides the very grammar we use to understand our salvation.

SPEAKER_01 12:16

The layers of connection there are just incredible. The physical crossing points to the spiritual crossing. The physical resurrection of Lazarus points to our eternal resurrection. Exactly. But this brings us to a very grounded practical challenge. Let's say you've crossed the river, Jesus has called you out of the tomb, the stone is rolled away, and you are breathing again. What on earth do you do with the after?

SPEAKER_00 12:39

That is the hardest part. Now you actually have to live.

SPEAKER_01 12:42

And Father Mike Schmitz had a highly entertaining analogy for this exact dilemma in his Sunday homily. He confessed that his guilty pleasure is watching reality television, specifically the show Bar Rescue.

SPEAKER_00 12:56

Oh, I love that show.

SPEAKER_01 12:57

Right. For anyone who hasn't seen it, an expert comes into a failing, dilapidated business, yells at the owners, completely renovates the place for free, and then leaves them with a pristine new bar.

SPEAKER_00 13:09

A total unearned rescue of their livelihood.

SPEAKER_01 13:11

Yes. But Father Mike noted that his favorite part of the show isn't the renovation, it's the Where Are They Now segment they show a year later. Because the expert gave them a totally free rescue. The real drama is finding out what they actually did with the gift. Right. Father Mike argues that when Jesus raises Lazarus, or when the father welcomes back the prodigal son in Luke's gospel, they are essentially being handed a bonus chapter. Their story was legally and practically over, but Grace rewrote the ending and gave them an epilogue.

SPEAKER_00 13:42

There is a fascinating layer to how Father Mike breaks down the nature of that grace too, especially when looking at the prodigal son.

SPEAKER_01 13:49

Let's hear it.

SPEAKER_00 13:50

We often focus on the forgiveness, right? But look at the specific items the father gives the son upon his return. He doesn't take him back as a hired servant trying to work off his debt. He fully restores his dignity.

SPEAKER_01 14:01

Right. He gives him the finest robe, a signet ring, and sandals. But we need to unpack the why and how behind those specific items because they aren't just, you know, ancient fashion accessories.

SPEAKER_00 14:13

Far from it. The finest robe represents a restoration of honor. It literally covers the filth and shame of the pig sty he just came from.

SPEAKER_01 14:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:20

But the signet ring is the truly staggering detail. Oh, so in the ancient economy, the signet ring wasn't just decorative jewelry, it was the equivalent of a corporate credit card with no spending limit.

SPEAKER_01 14:31

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 14:32

It was used to stamp wax and authorize legal and financial transactions for the estate. The father is handing financial authority back to the very kid who just bankrupted him.

SPEAKER_01 14:42

That is insane.

SPEAKER_00 14:44

That is the scandalous nature of grace.

SPEAKER_01 14:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:46

And finally the sandals. In that culture, servants and slaves went barefoot. Only free men and sons wore sandals inside the house. So the sandals represent true freedom. He is free to walk away again if he wants to, but he is invited to stay as an heir.

SPEAKER_01 15:02

So the father restores the honor, the authority, and the freedom. To connect this to the bigger picture, Grace completely restores the relationship. But a real relationship isn't just a one-way street of receiving gifts. Father Mike said, life after is life with.

SPEAKER_00 15:16

Yeah, that was good.

SPEAKER_01 15:17

And real relationships with real rights come with real responsibilities. You don't get the limitless credit card in the sandals just to go sit on the couch and watch TV.

SPEAKER_00 15:25

Which ties perfectly back to the scene with Lazarus in the Gospel of John. Think about the physical mechanics of that resurrection.

SPEAKER_01 15:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:32

When Lazarus comes hopping out of the tomb, he's alive, but he is still entirely bound head to toe in his burial cloths.

SPEAKER_01 15:39

Right, like a mummy.

SPEAKER_00 15:40

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 15:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:41

Jesus is standing right there. He has the power to miraculously dissolve the cloths. Or he could simply walk over and untie his friend. But he doesn't do either.

SPEAKER_01 15:52

What does he do?

SPEAKER_00 15:53

He turns to the community standing around the tomb and issues a command. Untie him and let him go.

SPEAKER_01 15:59

You know, I have read that passage a hundred times and never paused on that detail. Jesus outsources the unbinding to the community.

SPEAKER_00 16:07

He demands their participation. That is the fundamental responsibility of the bonus chapter. Both Cardinal Kupic and Father Jerry Orbos anchor their homilies on this exact mandate.

SPEAKER_01 16:16

That we have to untie others.

SPEAKER_00 16:17

Yes. Having received grace, having been given your own bonus chapter of life, your supreme responsibility is to untie the shackles of others.

SPEAKER_01 16:25

Untying the Lazarus next door.

SPEAKER_00 16:27

Exactly. The shackles of poverty, the burial cloths of shame, the bindings of systemic injustice. Cardinal Kupic emphasized that we cannot just marvel at the miracle. We have to actively work for peace and alleviate human suffering in the world. We are commanded to get our hands dirty, pulling off the burial cloths.

SPEAKER_01 16:47

Father Jerry Orbos framed this in such a warm, approachable way. He said, We need to focus on leaving heart prints, not just footprints, as we walk through this world.

SPEAKER_00 16:56

Heart prints. I like that.

SPEAKER_01 16:57

Right. He said, We need to go the extra smile. And he literally challenged his congregation with this startling question. He asked: Are people genuinely glad that you're still alive?

SPEAKER_00 17:08

Wow, that's a punch to the gut.

SPEAKER_01 17:10

It's a bit jarring, but it's brilliant. Like, are you using your epilogue to bring joy, relief, and freedom to the people around you? Or are you just taking up oxygen, consuming resources, and bumping into doors?

SPEAKER_00 17:20

It is a deeply sobering metric for how we live. Yeah. It forces us to examine the grace we've been given, this completely unmerited rescue, the ring, the robe, the sandals, and ask ourselves how we are actively stewarding it for the benefit of the community.

SPEAKER_01 17:33

And that brings us to the central challenge for you, the person listening right now.

SPEAKER_00 17:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:37

If you are breathing, if you have ever experienced forgiveness, if you have ever survived a dark night of the soul, you have received an unearned rescue. This means you are currently, in this very moment, living in your bonus chapter.

SPEAKER_00 17:52

And the immediate question is, how do you intend to live it today? Father Mike offered a highly specific, actionable challenge for this week to help shift our mindset.

SPEAKER_01 18:02

What was the challenge?

SPEAKER_00 18:03

Every single morning when you wake up, before you reach for your phone, before you let the anxieties of the day take root, turn your attention to God. Acknowledge the relationship you've been restored to, and simply ask, okay, Dad, what do you want to do today?

SPEAKER_01 18:16

What do you want to do today? It completely dismantles our obsession with our own schedules and aligns us with God's will.

SPEAKER_00 18:22

Exactly. It's an invitation to active participation. You aren't a servant waiting to be micromanaged, and you aren't a pampered guest expecting room service. You are a restored heir, stepping into the family business of bringing light to the dark.

SPEAKER_01 18:36

I love the simplicity of Father Orbos' three daily prayers that he shared alongside this too.

SPEAKER_00 18:41

Oh, those are beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 18:42

Yeah, he prays that the rest of his life be the best of his life, that his exit from this world be kind, and that his entry into eternity be bright.

SPEAKER_00 18:51

Those are the prayers of a man who deeply understands the Paschal mystery. Someone who has crossed the Jordan, built his memorial of twelve stones, and is consciously living out his epilogue.

SPEAKER_01 19:02

To build on Father Mike's reality TV analogy and the reality of the bonus chapter, I want to leave you with a final thought to mull over today that we haven't touched on yet.

SPEAKER_00 19:11

All right, lay it on us.

SPEAKER_01 19:12

Think about Lazarus. He was miraculously raised from the dead, he got his bonus chapter, but 20, maybe 30 years later, Lazarus had to die again. He had to physically face the end of his earthly life a second time. The bonus chapter isn't internal, it is practice, it is preparation. How you choose to live your epilogue right now, whether you are hoarding your grace or actively untying the burial cloths of the people around you, is exactly what prepares you for that inevitable final exit. When Jesus doesn't call you back to this world but calls you forward into the next world, will you be ready?

SPEAKER_00 19:50

That is the ultimate question.

SPEAKER_01 19:52

That's our deep dive for today. We hope this helped you see the big picture. If you enjoyed the content, please remember to subscribe to the show so you never miss a day. God bless.