REFLECTION — 5th Sunday in Lent, 29 March 2020
First reading, Ezekiel 37:12-14 — I shall put my spirit in you, and you will live
THE Lord says this: I am now going to open your graves; I mean to raise you from your graves, my people, and lead you back to the soil of Israel.
And you will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and raise you from your graves, my people.
And I shall put my spirit in you, and you will live, and I shall resettle you on your own soil; and you will know that I, the Lord, have said and done this – it is the Lord who speaks.
Second reading, Romans 8:8-11 — The Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you
PEOPLE who are interested only in unspiritual things can never be pleasing to God. Your interests, however, are not in the unspiritual, but in the spiritual, since the Spirit of God has made his home in you.
In fact, unless you possessed the Spirit of Christ you would not belong to him.
Though your body may be dead it is because of sin, but if Christ is in you then your spirit is life itself because you have been justified; and if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, then he who raised Jesus from the dead will give life to your own mortal bodies through his Spirit living in you.
Gospel, John 11:1-45 — I am the resurrection and the life
THERE was a man named Lazarus who lived in the village of Bethany with the two sisters, Mary and Martha, and he was ill. It was the same Mary, the sister of the sick man Lazarus, who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair. The sisters sent this message to Jesus, ‘Lord, the man you love is ill.’ On receiving the message, Jesus said, ‘This sickness will end not in death but in God’s glory, and through it the Son of God will be glorified.’
Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, yet when he heard that Lazarus was ill he stayed where he was for two more days before saying to the disciples, ‘Let us go to Judaea.’ The disciples said, ‘Rabbi, it is not long since the Jews wanted to stone you; are you going back again?’ Jesus replied:
‘Are there not twelve hours in the day? A man can walk in the daytime without stumbling because he has the light of this world to see by; but if he walks at night he stumbles, because there is no light to guide him.’
He said that and then added, ‘Our friend Lazarus is resting, I am going to wake him.’ The disciples said to him, ‘Lord, if he is able to rest he is sure to get better.’ The phrase Jesus used referred to the death of Lazarus, but they thought that by ‘rest’ he meant ‘sleep’, so Jesus put it plainly, ‘Lazarus is dead; and for your sake I am glad I was not there because now you will believe. But let us go to him.’ Then Thomas – known as the Twin – said to the other disciples, ‘Let us go too, and die with him.’
On arriving, Jesus found that Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days already. Bethany is only about two miles from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to sympathise with them over their brother.
When Martha heard that Jesus had come she went to meet him. Mary remained sitting in the house. Martha said to Jesus, ‘If you had been here, my brother would not have died, but I know that, even now, whatever you ask of God, he will grant you.’ ‘Your brother’ said Jesus to her ‘will rise again.’ Martha said, ‘I know he will rise again at the resurrection on the last day.’ Jesus said:
‘I am the resurrection and the life. If anyone believes in me, even though he dies he will live, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’
‘Yes, Lord,’ she said ‘I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who was to come into this world.’
When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in a low voice, ‘The Master is here and wants to see you.’ Hearing this, Mary got up quickly and went to him. Jesus had not yet come into the village; he was still at the place where Martha had met him.
When the Jews who were in the house sympathising with Mary saw her get up so quickly and go out, they followed her, thinking that she was going to the tomb to weep there.
Mary went to Jesus, and as soon as she saw him she threw herself at his feet, saying, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’ At the sight of her tears, and those of the Jews who followed her, Jesus said in great distress, with a sigh that came straight from the heart, ‘Where have you put him?’
They said, ‘Lord, come and see.’ Jesus wept; and the Jews said, ‘See how much he loved him!’ But there were some who remarked, ‘He opened the eyes of the blind man, could he not have prevented this man’s death?’ Still sighing, Jesus reached the tomb: it was a cave with a stone to close the opening. Jesus said, ‘Take the stone away.’ Martha said to him, ‘Lord, by now he will smell; this is the fourth day.’ Jesus replied, ‘Have I not told you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?’ So they took away the stone. Then Jesus lifted up his eyes and said:
‘Father, I thank you for hearing my prayer. I knew indeed that you always hear me, but I speak for the sake of all these who stand round me, so that they may believe it was you who sent me.’
When he had said this, he cried in a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, here! Come out!’ The dead man came out, his feet and hands bound with bands of stuff and a cloth round his face. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, let him go free.’
Many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary and had seen what he did believed in him.
REFLECTION
WHEN someone has died, he is dead. There is NOTHING we can do for him, except to mourn which does not raise him to life again. Death is the END, period… the FULL STOP of life and hope. Jesus is our Resurrection and our eternal Life.
The readings today take us to the culmination of our Lenten Catechesis before we enter into Holy Week and Easter from next Sunday. Based on the selected readings for each Sunday, Mother Church takes us progressively into deeper conversion, getting us ready to finally plunge into the waters of Baptism, or to renew our Baptism at Easter.
The building up of the important themes through the Sundays in Lent is clear: Jesus is our victory over temptation and sin; our divine transfiguration; the Living Water that quenches our deepest longings; the Light that enlightens us to find our way home to the Father. And today, the final catechesis takes us to the ultimate: Jesus is our Resurrection and Life.
… the Christian Faith is founded on the uncompromised belief that Jesus historically died, factually rose again from the dead.
With Jesus there is no full stop to life.
We begin our reflection by not presuming we know all about the Raising of Lazarus just because we have read/heard it countless times. At any moment, the Word of God is always new, powerful, creating things non-existent before.
The Word always empowers us to hear, to see, and believe that Jesus IS Resurrection and life. And unless we believe, we should not be baptized, neither should we renew our baptismal promises this Easter, for the Christian Faith is founded on the uncompromised belief that Jesus historically died, factually rose again from the dead. Fight about other doctrinal issues, but if we don’t believe He is truly risen, then our faith does not save.
If we do not believe in the Resurrection, call ourselves anything, but we remain staunchly pagan. Lord, have mercy on us!
In the gospel today, Lazarus had been sick and was now dead, but the Lord in an act of utter faith declared: ‘This sickness will end not in death but in God’s glory, and through it the Son of God will be glorified.’ Death will no longer be the full stop. Death itself will show forth the glory of God.
Like we, the disciples and all the others in the story are troubled and shut off by the same problem, that death is the end, the full stop.
We see it in the disciples. Lazarus is dead. Why bother to take the long journey to Bethany and risk getting killed by the enemies feverishly seeking to get rid of Jesus? Is it worth the risk and be foolhardy like Thomas in his bravado: ‘Let us go too, and die with him’? … Full stop to all?
Overcome by the grief of Mary and the Jews with her, Jesus said in great distress, with a sigh that came straight from the heart, ‘Where have you put him?’ He wept.
Martha shares the same problem but appears to have a glimpse of hope: ‘Lord, by now he will smell; this is the fourth day … If you had been here, my brother would not have died, but I know that, even now, whatever you ask of God, he will grant you.’
Mary, who used to sit at the Lord’s feet listening to Him remained in the same house the Lord had visited, in deep recollection. She seems the calmest and most resigned, yet she too is overwhelmed by the finality of her brother’s death: ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’
The Jews sympathizing with the bereaved sisters were overcome too by the dead end of Lazarus and bitterly blamed Jesus for it: ‘He opened the eyes of the blind man, could he not have prevented this man’s death?’
‘I am the resurrection and the life. If anyone believes in me, even though he dies he will live, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’
Now, don’t get it wrong. Jesus, in the fulness of His humanity, who was like us in all things, also shared the deep anguish of Lazarus’ full stop. Overcome by the grief of Mary and the Jews with her, Jesus said in great distress, with a sigh that came straight from the heart, ‘Where have you put him?’ He wept.
Then He did it. In front of Lazarus’ opened tomb, surrounded by the smell of death the last enemy of man, Jesus with the same utter faith in His Father cried out: ‘Lazarus, here! Come out! The dead man came out, his feet and hands bound with bands of stuff and a cloth round his face. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, let him go free.’
On Good Friday we shall join in the Mystery of the one Death that destroys all deaths and shows forth the greatest glory of God, the God of eternal life.
“You will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and raise you from your graves, my people!”
‘I am the resurrection and the life. If anyone believes in me, even though he dies he will live, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’
Yes, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief! May I be prepared for Holy Week and Easter!
St Simon Catholic Church Likas 