Fifth Sunday of Lent
life
Reading IEzekiel 37:12-14
Thus says the Lord GOD: O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them, and bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and have you rise from them, O my people! I will put my spirit in you that you may live, and I will settle you upon your land; thus you shall know that I am the LORD. I have promised, and I will do it, says the LORD.
Responsorial Psalm Psalm 130:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8
(7) With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.
Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD; LORD, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to my voice in supplication. R
If you, O LORD, mark iniquities, LORD, who can stand? But with you is forgiveness, that you may be revered. R
I trust in the LORD; my soul trusts in his word. More than sentinels wait for the dawn, let Israel wait for the LORD. R
For with the LORD is kindness and with him is plenteous redemption; And he will redeem Israel from all their iniquities.
Reading II Romans 8:8-11
Brothers and sisters: Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh; on the contrary, you are in the spirit, if only the Spirit of God dwells in you. Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is alive because of righteousness. If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit dwelling in you.
Gospel John 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.” Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that he was ill, he remained for two days in the place where he was. Then after this he said to his disciples, « Let us go back to Judea.”
When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming,she went to meet him;
but Mary sat at home. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here,my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask of God,God will give you.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise.”
Martha said,“I know he will rise,in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord.I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God,the one who is coming into the world.”
He became perturbed and deeply troubled, and said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Sir, come and see.” And Jesus wept. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him.” But some of them said, “Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man have done something so that this man would not have died?”
So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay across it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the dead man’s sister, said to him, “Lord, by now there will be a stench; he has been dead for four days.” Jesus said to her,“Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?” 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.”
Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary and seen what he had done began to believe in him.
OUR DEAD ARE ALIVE
The final good-bye to a loved one inevitably sinks us into grief and powerlessness. It’s as if our whole life ends up destroyed. There are no words or arguments that can consol us. What can we hope for?
The story in John’s Gospel doesn’t only have the objective of telling about the resurrection of Lazarus, but above all awakening our faith, not so that we believe in the resurrection as a far-off act that will occur at the end of the world, but so that we «see» from right now that God is infusing life in those we’ve buried.
Jesus arrives «sobbing» at the tomb of his friend Lazarus. The Gospel writer tells us that «it is covered with a stone». That stone closes the path. We know nothing of our dead friends. A stone separates the world of the living and the world of the dead. The only thing left to us is to hope for the final day in order to see if anything happens.
This is the Jewish faith of Martha: «I know that my brother will rise in the resurrection of the last day». It’s not enough for Jesus. «Take away the stone». We’re going to see what happens with the one you have buried. Martha pleads with Jesus to be realistic. The dead per-son has begun to decompose and «stinks». Jesus answers her: «If you believe, you will see the glory of God». If faith is awakened in Martha, she can «see» that God is giving life to her brother.
«Take away the stone» and Jesus «raises his eyes to the heavens», inviting all to raise their gaze toward God, before penetrating with faith the mystery of death. He has stopped weeping. «He gives thanks» to the Father because «the Father always listens to him». What he wants is that those gathered around «believe» that he is the One Sent by the Father to bring new hope into the world.
Then «he cries out in a loud voice: Lazarus, come out». He wants him to come out to show everyone that he’s alive. The scene is powerful. Lazarus has «his feet and his hands bound with cloths» and «his face wrapped in a burial cloth». He carries the signs and bindings of death. Yet «the dead man comes out» on his own. He’s alive!
This is the faith of those who believe in Jesus: those whom we bury and abandon in death are alive. God hasn’t abandoned them. Re-move the stone with faith. Our dead are alive!
José Antonio Pagola
Translator: Fr. Jay VonHandorf