BIBLE: FOOD FOR SPIRITUAL GROWTH

                    FOOD FOR SPIRITUAL GROWTH

                                            1 Peter 2:2-3

Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

Read the verses around this Bible passage from the Internet Bible: in English, and many other languages

Babies cannot look after themselves. Without care and food, they will not survive.  Milk is a part of God's provision, naturally craved for when the new-born gets hungry. Certainly, a good drink of pure milk helps supply calories and the raw materials for building a healthy body.  But through the act of suckling, the infant also learns relationship, becoming contented and bonding to parents and family.  Peter uses this analogy for Christians who are 'born again' into God's family (John 3:3-18). All believers in Jesus Christ need regular spiritual food from the Bible if they are to grow and stay healthy themselves, and become a well-functioning part of the Body of Christ – the church.

In the same way that a cry for milk is a sign of a healthy baby, the new-born Christian should be hungry to receive truth from God. An appetite for reading the Bible, and having it explained, is a very good sign of growing as a Christian. As we get the taste for His truth, and put it into practice, we should get hungry for more of His Word (Psalm 34:8). It seems that Peter’s readers have already delighted in the truth; they have tasted that the Lord is good; they have come to Him (1 Peter 2:4), rejoiced in their salvation (1 Peter 1:5-6) , started to love Him and experience the joy of His presence in their hearts (1 Peter 1:8).  But Peter urged them to keep growing.  To mature in knowledge and love of God they must continue to take in regular spiritual nourishment from the Word.

Although it would be nice to think that all Christians are keen to explore the deep truths of the Scripture, the worldly believer has little appetite for that (1 Corinthians 3:1-2). Apathy towards reading the Bible is a sign of spiritual sickness, a sort of spiritual anorexia - believing they will be in better shape if they do not read and digest God’s Word.  What could cause such a sickness in us? Either we have wandered away from Jesus (2 Timothy 4:3-4), and have lost an appetite for truth; or we have refused to obey the truth we have received; or we are more concerned to create an image for ourselves (Romans 12:3) than to accept the privilege of growing into the image of Christ (Ephesians 4:15) . Or, however religious we might be, we have never repented or welcomed Jesus (Revelation 3:19-20) and so not been born into God's family (John 1:12) at all, and are still locked into our truth-denying, God-condemning unbelief (John 3:14-18).

The remedy is to come to Jesus in repentance and faith (click onto www.crosscheck.org.uk if you are not sure what this means), choose to obey the truth you already know, and decide to take regular spiritual meals as you read God's Word and decide to live in a way that pleases Him. As we take in nourishment God will help to stir our spiritual appetite back to normal.  Hopefully, Word@Work is already stirring your hunger to grow up more into Christ. Share this with one or two in your family, friends and work groups; it may be just what they need.

Dear Heavenly Father. Thank You for providing me with all I need to grow up in Your family. Forgive me when I have valued my own ideas, or the falsely empowering Christless ideas from my friends or media, more than Your Word. I know that I can only grow up properly as a child of God if I accept and obey Your Word. So please give me a renewed appetite for the pure truth contained in the Bible, and I ask Your Holy Spirit to work in me to show me how to become a spiritually mature part of the Body of Christ. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

HOUND OF HEAVEN

JOHN 7:1-2, 10, 25-30: GOD SEEKING US

Friends, in today’s Gospel Jesus proclaims during the Feast of Tabernacles that the Father has sent him.

In his passion to set right a disjointed universe, God broke open his own heart in love. The Father sent not simply a representative, spokesman, or plenipotentiary, but his own Son into the dysfunction of the world so that he might gather that world into the bliss of the divine life.

God’s centre—the love between the Father and the Son—is now offered as our centre; God’s heart breaks open so as to include even the worst and most hopeless among us. In so many spiritual traditions, the emphasis is placed on the human quest for God, but this is reversed in Christianity.

Christians do not believe that God is dumbly "out there," like a mountain waiting to be climbed by various religious searchers. On the contrary, God, like the hound of heaven in Francis Thompson’s poem, comes relentlessly searching after us.

Because of this questing and self-emptying divine love, we become friends of God, sharers in the communion of the Trinity. That is the essence of Christianity; everything else is commentary.

Reflect: How has God come "relentlessly searching" for you during your life?

CORONAVIRUS CROSS

The Coronavirus Cross:

 Bringing Faith, Hope and Love to a Hurting World

 The only antidote to fear is faith, and the surest way to build and strengthen faith is through prayer.

It’s often said that with God, there are no mere coincidences. So the overlap of the explosion of the global COVID-19 pandemic with this year’s Holy Week celebrations should give cause for Catholics to engage in some serious reflection about what this unanticipated juxtaposition signifies.

Understandably, the initial response of Catholics in the U.S. has been shaped by the deluge of disturbing coronavirus images from other countries that have dominated news and social media for weeks. This frightening imagery now is combined with firsthand experiences of cases of infection here at home, empty shelves at supermarkets, and an ever-growing range of shutdowns of public events and workplaces — including cancellations of public Masses in most parts of the nation — that are being imposed in order to slow the disease’s spread.

The picture of Pope Francis standing above a deserted St. Peter’s Square, which is featured on the front page of this issue of the Register, might be viewed as an especially evocative example of how disheartening the situation has become.

But while Pope Francis’ Angelus blessing over the city of Rome without a soul in sight was chilling, it was also strangely comforting. Prayer goes on. God is with us.

Our Christian hope always rests in God — yet as we recall throughout Holy Week, this hope did not arise in the context of comfort and security. It arose from Jesus Christ’s victory over sin and death, purchased for us through the excruciating sufferings of his passion and death on the cross at Golgotha, abandoned and almost entirely alone. But out of that seeming disaster was born the resurrection of Easter, the reason for our hope both here and in the hereafter.

This hope can never be shaken by any physical disease, not even one so serious as the coronavirus. And as believers, it’s our particular responsibility to manifest this hope to the many others in our secularized contemporary society who, lacking faith, might be drawn toward despair by the advance of the coronavirus.

But since hope is only one of the three Christian theological virtues, Catholic clergy and lay faithful are called equally to serve as beacons of charity and faith in the face of the coronavirus crisis. Indeed, such a witness has been modeled countless times previously over the 2,000-year life of the Church, through the compelling example of Catholics like St. Charles Borromeo who, in the face of a deadly plague besetting his own 16th-century Archdiocese of Milan, refused to follow the lead of civil authorities in fleeing the city. Instead, Cardinal Borromeo courageously remained in place to shepherd his flock, both spiritually and materially.

Elsewhere in this issue of the Register there are reports about how U.S. Catholics are ministering to their brothers and sisters in need. In terms of charitable assistance, help is being delivered through a range of initiatives coordinated through dioceses and parishes, Catholic agencies and religious orders. Catholic doctors, nurses, chaplains, nuns and other front-line personnel are also striving heroically, sometimes at great risk to themselves, to care for those who have been hardest hit by the virus.

Individual Catholics can play their part, too, both indirectly by donating to such efforts and directly by reaching out to overburdened neighbors whenever possible to lend their support.

Perhaps even greater assistance can be provided in the area of faith, however. At another time of great national crisis, Franklin Delano Roosevelt famously remarked, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

Addressing the nation during the depths of the Great Depression, Roosevelt wasn’t dismissing the legitimate fears that almost all Americans then shared regarding their collective economic future.

Instead, he was indicating that specific fears can be addressed in a number of ways, such as sound public policies and a spirit of national solidarity. What is paralyzing is to be overcome by an overwhelming and generalized despair, one that provides no room for hope and therefore robs people of the spirit they require in order to rally in the face of adversity.

The only antidote to fear is faith, and the surest way to build and strengthen faith is through prayer. Catholics know that the very highest form of prayer is the Eucharist, the “source and summit of the Christian life,” in the words of the Second Vatican Council.

With public Masses suspended in so many areas, and unavailable to many of the faithful even in areas where they haven’t been, this issue of the Register provides insight into what can be done to maximize the effectiveness of our prayers in these circumstances. Such means can include viewing televised Masses, making frequent spiritual communions, strengthening the “domestic Church” through instruments like praying the Rosary and the Liturgy of the Hours within the family, and even participation in public prayers outside of hospitals and homes in support of patients and residents quarantined in those locations.

An interview with the rector of the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes eloquently explains that even though the spread of the coronavirus forced the closure of the shrine to the public, it remains “the prayer lung of the world,” in terms of seeking the intercession of Mary in this time of suffering and peril.

Nearly 2,000 years ago, Jesus entered Jerusalem for the final time during Holy Week, to embrace there his cross on behalf of all humanity. Near the end of his passion, as Our Lord’s earthly strength drained away, Simon of Cyrene stepped forward to help him shoulder the weight of the cross of salvation.

Today, as the cross of the coronavirus is weighing down so many in so many different ways, afflicting Christians and non-Christians without distinction, it is now our turn to try to serve as contemporary Simons of Cyrene, by bringing the faith, hope and love of Jesus to others in these most challenging times.

JOY AND GRIEF

THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF JOY AND GRIEF

1 Peter 1:6-7

In all this [eternal salvation] you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.

Most people would like troubles to go away, so that they can 'get on with the rest of their life'.  However, it is our reaction to unwanted distress which shapes much of our character and conditions the rest of our lives.  The Christian's starting point in trouble should be joyful gratitude for God's mercy and grace in salvation; and for His promise not to withhold what is good (Psalm 84:11; Romans 8:32) .  When praise sets the scene, difficulties become God's tools. (2 Chronicles 20:20-22). Peter was writing to churches whose suffering was multi-dimensional.  We do not know the details but persecution around the world today is expressed in ridicule, beatings, prison, separation from loved ones; homes torn down, burned or looted, personal assaults … the list might go on.  Peter does not need to itemise the different ways in which their faith was being be tested.  However, he assures them that their grief would be temporary, and that their suffering was not pointless - but was all included in the Lord’s plan.  Their faithfulness through such trials would result in great honour going to the Lord, and great reward to them. Christians are not immune to grief.  It will come to us all.  But it only comes with Father God's permission and accompanied by His grace (1 Corinthians 10:13), so that His greater glory may be seen.  Although faith might seem easy in church, the times of testing prove if it is genuine (James 1:2-4) .   When we depend on comforting fellowship rather than the Holy Spirit; when fearful thoughts displace prayer, or planning 'how to cope' replaces Bible reading – something is wrong. Mature faith, however, knows the comfort of God (2 Corinthians 1:3), keeps praying and looks to God's Word first - especially when the difficulties bring significant grief. Learning how to deal with distress in a Godly way is the Lord’s way of refining us so that our faith will grow, and His Glory will glow! As we advance in the school of faith, the examinations get harder.  The purpose of exams is not to disable the student, but to demonstrate what has been learned.  It is just the same with our Christian faith.  Our flesh likes to think that we can succeed by ourselves.  But we cannot!  Every day we need Jesus to save us from sin, to guide, protect, comfort, heal and strengthen us to serve Him.  So, each trouble, trial, test (with their accompanying grief) is designed to reveal how much we have learned to trust in Jesus.  The final exam is when He comes back and asks us about everything, face to face. But for today, each difficulty at work or home is a preparation for that great day.  For those in the workplace, your reaction to difficulties may say more about your faith than you have imagined.

Dear Lord God. Thank You that every difficulty I face is known and allowed by You for my growth in faith and Your glory. Forgive me for so resenting the difficulties which come to disturb my self-confidence. Help me to learn to trust in You; starting each day with joyful praise and a willingness to allow You to guide and provide, and to help me in times of trouble. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

FROM FEAR TO FULFILLMENT

FROM FEAR TO FULFILLMENT

1 Peter 1:3

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

Love, especially when expressed in praise, is the antidote to fear and failure (1 John 4:17-18).  Peter’s readers had been scattered away from their family homes (1 Peter 1:1-2).  They felt isolated and some were afraid. Others had wandered away from Jesus, living to please themselves (1 Peter 2:11) , and feared His wrath. So, this letter was to encourage them, and us, to respond afresh to God’s love: to praise Him who has given a new birth, a new hope and new peace through His overwhelming mercy and grace.  Peter wrote from personal experience. He had once disowned his relationship with Jesus, cursing and swearing that he did not even know his Master (Mark 14:66-72).  But after the resurrection the Lord showed mercy to Peter, trusting him again to work for God's kingdom (John 21:15-22).  Peter knew that Jesus died to cover his sins as well as ours.   God's mercy does not come because He thinks our sins are insignificant: they are a huge barrier to fellowship with Him.  His mercy is great because although our sins are great, His solution was enormously effective although massively costly.  God chose to punish His Son Jesus for every human sin, so that all who trust in Him can be totally forgiven.    They receive God's full mercy along with His forgiveness and release from a guilty conscience (Hebrews 10:22).   Although most Christians know what they have been saved from (God's wrath and hell to come), many do not know what they have been saved to. Peter encourages believers to live each day in the light of eternity, explaining that there is a whole new life to be lived now and future to be gained beyond death.  All who trust in Christ are born again; made God’s own children (John 1:12), and incorporated into His world-wide, heaven-high family.  The resurrection of Jesus demonstrates that the curse of sin is removed, and heaven awaits.  The ‘living hope’ is the assurance of eternal life with Jesus: meaning that death is not the end, and that all who welcome God’s mercy here - are assured of His welcome for all eternity.   Christ's resurrection is God's guarantee of a new tomorrow. Jesus conquered death, so death can no longer have the last word. Jesus' new life in believers assures us that those who are born again have already started their eternal life with Him. The 'hope' of the Christian is not just a vague wistfulness that things might get better - but a confidence that every day we are secure in Jesus, until we meet Him and He rewards our faithfulness. Your friends and colleagues, who do not know Christ, cannot enjoy this freedom from guilty fear or the glorious prospect of all that heaven holds. As we give thanks for God's mercy to us, we need to pray for our friends at work - that they will also welcome God's invitation to receive His abundant mercy, grace and peace which is the essence of lasting fulfilment and the root of praise.

Dear Father God. Thank You for releasing me from a guilty conscience as I trust in Christ's sacrifice for me. Please forgive me for slipping back into old habits of fear following failure. Help me to leave the past behind and to look forward to enjoying my life with You today, and every day, forever. Please give me a praising heart, filled with Your joy which puts the little worries into perspective; and give me a prayerful heart to see Your mercy welcomed by my friends too. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT Cycle "A"

THIRD SUNDAY LENT “A”

John 4:5-42

On this Third Sunday of Lent, the Scripture presents two powerful stories about thirst--thirst for water. The Israelites thirst in the desert was so great that Moses feared for his life. So God told Moses to strike a rock--and water gushed forth.      It satisfied them for a while.

In the Gospel, Jesus breaks the law to speak to a Samaritan woman who had come to Jacob's well to draw water. She was a passionate woman who had tried every kind of pleasure, but none had satisfied. What a surprise, when Jesus, tired, hungry and thirsty, asks her for a drink of water! He broke all the rules in speaking to her. Now, He keeps on talking, ignoring her hostility, aware that, in this unexpected encounter, the Father has provided Him with an opportunity for piercing the heart of this sinful woman with His love.

Jesus suggests that He can give her living water that is far superior to anything she had ever tasted. Certainly her five husbands (plus her newest lover) haven't brought her what she is really looking for. We know that she had tried cheap love, and we presume she was no stranger to intoxication, power, and money! This isn't a gentle lady who comes to draw water from the well, but a toughened cynic. No wonder she is rude to this travel-dusty Jew, whom she is sure will avoid her with downcast eyes. Jews despised Samaritans who worshipped God on the wrong mountain. But Jesus doesn't follow the accepted prejudice!

Jesus forgets His own needs, and offers this woman living water, spiritual grace. Incredible! Finding her heart curious and open to this miraculous water, He proceeds to raise her vision. He asks her to go back and bring her husband to the well with her. Of course, this is the turning point of the story. When He confronts her with the truth, she could have flounced off in righteous indignation and denial--but she doesn't. In humility, she accepts the reality of her sordid life. Because of her humility, Jesus floods her soul with grace. Dropping her bucket, she runs back to spread the good news. "I've found the Messiah!" And she had!

Lent is a time for us to let Jesus satisfy our thirst. Like that woman, we too have tried the wrong kinds of water to quench our thirst for happiness, satisfaction, and peace of mind without really finding it. Now is the time for us to find real joy and satisfaction in letting the Lord fill us with the grace of the season. Like her, we will find that our joy is greatest when we share that gift with others--joining in a study or prayer group, visiting a nursing home, being patient with our family members, and really listening to them, praying from the heart in a quiet place, reflecting on the Word privately or at daily Mass, and letting the Eucharist change us into the Body of Christ.

The Samaritan woman never did give Jesus a drink of water as He had requested. Do we stop to realize that Jesus' thirst for our love is even greater than our thirst for His love? I guess only saints understand that. It's what gives them the energy to pour themselves out in ministry up to their last breath.

Next Sunday, Lent will be half over. A question: Are we satisfied with what we have done so far to let Jesus fulfil our desires? We need to check out our habits of prayer, our penances, and our almsgiving. And what are we planning for the remainder of Lent? It's all about quenching our thirst for life, shunning the type of thirst-quencher that doesn't really satisfy, and earnestly begging Jesus to give us His Living Water.
This week we hear in the gospel reading the story of Jesus, tired, hot and thirsty, sitting straight down at the well. Give me a drink. This is not the social call of If Jesus Came to My House, and it is not the spiritual equivalent of a room inspection. Can I believe that the Lord needs something from me? Can I believe that his need is greater than my need to be ready for him? 

More than that, can I trust that what the Lord wants is not something that I have prepared, but what is really flowing in me – in my life, my thoughts, my fears and desires?

This is not just a nice image, it is the reality of prayer. This is the good news, that “Christ died for us while we were still sinners” (Romans 5:8) – in other words, before we were ready. Christ is already sitting on the well of my life, tired, hot and thirsty. 

Can I accept this encounter of unreadiness? Can I trust that this encounter of unreadiness between myself and the Lord is itself the gift that God is offering, the greatest “if only you knew” of my life? Can I believe that allowing the Lord to encounter me, a sinner, without preparation, will uncover in me a spring that will never run dry?

Walk past the tap. Go down to the creek. More than what you have prepared, Jesus wants what flows.

THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT Cycle "A"

THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT

Cycle “A”: The Samaritan Woman

Introduction: When Jesus asked the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well for some water to drink,

He was actually expressing the thirst of God for every man and woman, and to awaken in our hearts the desire for the gift of the “spring of water within welling up for eternal life” (Jn 4,14). Only the water, given by the Son of God, can satisfy our restless hearts, which sin and worldly joys could not do.

Jesus repeatedly ignored the religious and cultural etiquette about man-woman relationship. He conversed at length with a foreign woman at a wayside well, a woman to whom he had not even been properly introduced. This Samaritan woman appeared to be a shrewd but world-weary individual. The window that Jesus opened to her past suggested that she had had a racy youth, seeking happiness in successive marriages. (How very modern.) But now the glamour and excitement had gone and she found herself left out by the other women of the village, forced to collect water alone.

She is initially suspicious of Jesus’ approach, but after his offer of  “living water”, she realises he is a deeply religious man. She adopts a tone of gentle irony, pointing out that he hasn’t got a bucket. However, a spring of living water would be very convenient and save her a lot of labour. But Jesus cuts through her shield of dry humour by his divine knowledge of her past history. By disclosing details of her personal life, he won her faith so that, like many other Samaritans in that town, she came to acknowledge him as ‘the Saviour of the world’ (v. 42). The woman had the courage to be honest, and this moves the conversation to a deeper level. She asks the religious questions that puzzled her: “Where is God to be worshipped ?” “Who’s right: the Jews or the Samaritans ?”  Jesus awakens a deeper longing in her for the Messiah. Seeing her honest openness, Jesus reveals himself as the Messiah, and he does it with a directness that not even his disciples have yet experienced. So, in striking up a conversation with the Samaritan woman, Jesus demolished another barrier of a social restraint. When we try to liberate people , we break down the walls separating people on grounds of caste, class, wealth and gender.

We can discern the originality of Jesus’ behaviour. While not denying the past, he welcomed the future; in fact, he was creating a new future for us. Jesus was never bound up by “a priori” prejudices. He watched, he listened, and he understood that the woman, her attitudes, answers, protests, expectations, her faith, all went to show him that she too was ready for the Kingdom of God. So he could speak about the new water that he would give her. In the meantime he gave her a catechetical instruction on the Holy Spirit and sanctifying grace  -  something that he had not done for his own disciples. It again goes to show that the Gospel is for everybody, and it is not surprising that non-Christians sometimes accuse us of betraying it. Jesus completed his Father’s work in the woman by giving her the living water of sanctifying grace. He wants to do the same with us: he wants to bring us into the state of grace where we are living fully the life of the Spirit. This water takes us out of death (sin, isolation, ignorance of God); it leads us into life (forgiveness, knowledge of God’s love, a living relationship with him).

Jesus called for the removal of the “line of control” between human beings. And today he also draws attention to the obstacle between ourselves and the future  -  the unexpected future that lies outside the territory of our  present habits, our likings, our ideas. God is not a fixed point. His work is not a monotonous repetition. Our God is the God of Exodus, the living God who awakens ever new and often surprising forms of life.

We need not deny our past. But let us get out of it and be better than the past. A growing child remains the same creature while being transformed all the time. So it is with each one of us, with all communities of faith, and with the Church. A church that does not renew itself is doomed. True fidelity to the past involves openness to the future. Jesus proclaimed it in public places. “The Kingdom of God is at hand. It’s here. You can feel its pressure.” And he added, “So, repent.” Or “Change your hearts.” If we want to follow Christ we are vowed to daily conversion, to a change of heart, a melting of those hardened attitudes towards certain people.

This season of Lent is the time to question every aspect of our life. I repeat, every aspect; not pick and choose what we are going to question and leave certain facets unchallenged because they’re too irksome to handle. We are called upon to adapt every dimension of our being to the needs of the future. Jesus, ahead of us, is always a figure on the horizon, a figure crossing the frontiers. Our society, our whole world, our church, are living through a transitional period unparalleled in history. Never has Jesus’ call been more pressing: “Change your hearts.”

See the beautiful butterflies emerging from their cocoons. We musn’t be afraid to see the cocoons breaking open to the springtime sun. For it is springtime. The Italian poet Dante’s lines are intended for us, for every day of our lives:

“Don’t you see ?

We are caterpillars born to make

that angelic butterfly

that flies freely towards justice.”

PRAYER: by Michel Quoist

To be there before you, Lord, that’s all.

To shut the eyes of my body,

To shut the eyes of my soul,

And be still and silent,

To expose myself to you who are there,

exposed to me.

To be there before you, the Eternal Presence.

I am willing to feel nothing, Lord,

to see nothing, to hear nothing.

empty of all ideas, of all images.

In the darkness,

Here I am, simply,

To meet you without obstacles,

In the silence of faith,

Before you, Lord.

This week we hear in the gospel reading the story of Jesus, tired, hot and thirsty, sitting straight down at the well. Give me a drink. This is not the social call of If Jesus Came to My House, and it is not the spiritual equivalent of a room inspection. Can I believe that the Lord needs something from me? Can I believe that his need is greater than my need to be ready for him? 

More than that, can I trust that what the Lord wants is not something that I have prepared, but what is really flowing in me – in my life, my thoughts, my fears and desires?

This is not just a nice image, it is the reality of prayer. This is the good news, that “Christ died for us while we were still sinners” (Romans 5:8) – in other words, before we were ready. Christ is already sitting on the well of my life, tired, hot and thirsty. 

Can I accept this encounter of unreadiness? Can I trust that this encounter of unreadiness between myself and the Lord is itself the gift that God is offering, the greatest “if only you knew” of my life? Can I believe that allowing the Lord to encounter me, a sinner, without preparation, will uncover in me a spring that will never run dry?

Walk past the tap. Go down to the creek. More than what you have prepared, Jesus wants what flows.

FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT YEAR "A"

Fifth Sunday of Lent “A”

Introduction: On this 5^th. Sunday of Lent, we are faced with the ultimate mystery of our existence. Union with Jesus prepares us to cross the barrier of death, so that we may live eternally with him. God created men and women for resurrection and life, and this truth gives meaning to the personal and social lives of men and women, meaning to culture, politics and the economy. Without the light of faith, the entire universe finishes shut within a tomb devoid of any future, any hope. But Jesus leads us into the ever expanding future and newness of life eternal.

FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT Cycle “A”

Ez 37, 12-14; Rom 8, 8-11; Jn 11, 1 – 45.

HOMILY: We have to face that unmentionable truth, the end game reality – namely, that death is part of life and every human being, no matter how wealthy, powerful or successful, will one day die. Every human being is, in a very real sense, living on borrowed time. Sickness, wars and human disasters simply flag up the harsh truth that human life is fragile, transient and fleeting. The prophet Isaiah was so right when he sang the lament: “All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it (Is. 40, 6-7).

One day an atheistic professor was giving a lecture on today’s Gospel. He declared the account was “pure fiction”. He asked, “Why did Jesus say, ‘Lazarus, come forth ‘?  Why not simply, ‘Come forth!’”  A Christian who was sitting at the back answered the atheist, “If Jesus had not specified Lazarus, all the dead people in the cemetery would have come alive to meet their Lord.”  What about food and accommodation?  is what I ask.  So it’s good that one generation dies to make place for the next.

Jesus wanted to show by this miracle that He was the Lord of life, that the power of his own Resurrection was already operating in this miracle, and that he wanted to reward the kind hospitality of Martha and Mary, the sisters of Lazarus. Jesus overnighted with this trio in their house where he could rest his heels and cool his fevered brow. He could unwind and have a good bath and meal. In the Bethany family Christ was indeed the honour Guest.

When Jesus received the messenger asking him to return to Bethany there was a price on his head. Yet he took the risk of moving out of the safety of the mountains and go to his friend’s side no matter the consequences to his own person. As the comedian Woody Allen said, “Showing up is two-thirds of life.” This beautiful gesture tells us about the character of Jesus. He is a friend in need, and clearly we can all expect the same consideration from him today.

The Lazarus story also tells us that the Saviour hated death with a passion. When he saw death he groaned from the pit of his stomach like the way your stomach turns when you see a badly mangled body. What Jesus reveals to us about God is that he is deeply upset when bad things happen to people, good or bad. Jesus is a God of life and not of death. He came to battle with death and conquer it.  Death was not part of God’s original blueprint for his sons and daughters; it was only Adam’s waywardness that brought is on us. In the meantime Jesus feels deeply the death of every one of his followers, he enters into the drama and pathos of it, and shares the pain of bereavement of relatives, even today.

Hidden deep within this episode of the raising of Lazarus is the further truth, that Jesus’ gift of life to Lazarus involved his own death, the offering of his own life.  Jesus had to be willing to risk and lose his own life. Love has its peculiar cost. Parents sacrifice their lives for their children’s good. The road to Bethany was for Jesus the first step on the way to Calvary.

Consider also the words of Jesus when Lazarus came up to the entrance of the tomb: “Unbind him, let him go free.” So Lazarus’ burial cloth, the wrapping of the shroud around him, was a sort of imprisonment. The closest parallel we can find in our own lives is the imprisonment of sin. When, in the sacrament of reconciliation, we hear the priest say, “I absolve you from your sins, that’s unbinding and freeing language he is using.

Jesus is the Lord of life and was set to ultimately engage our mortal enemies, sin, Satan and death in a titanic and cosmic struggle waged on the battlefield of Golgotha. This same Jesus encountered the death of his dear friend Lazarus. Lazarus had been dead in the grave for four days. His nearest and dearest, though still grieving would undoubtedly have accepted his death. However, Mary and Martha were women of remarkable and profound faith. They understood that Jesus had the power of life over death, and that, had he been there, he could have saved their brother. And even now they believed that he could still bring him back to life. Jesus was clearly very moved, weeping openly at their grief and loss. His promise to the grieving sisters and to every human being who believes in him is the same yesterday, today and forever.

“I am the Resurrection and the life; he who believes in me will live even if he has died. And everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” In 30 words Jesus emphasises that he is the Resurrection and the life. So why in the face of that information do we keep saying over the bodies of our loved ones, “Eternal rest be granted unto you? May you rest in peace?”  Would it not be more correct to take our clue from the Gospel and say, “Eternal life be granted unto you. May you live in peace.”  That way we wouldn’t think of heaven as a large dormitory for collecting eternal bed sores!

 Obviously Jesus thinks of heaven as a place where we live it up, go to party and look our best.

Finally Martha’s reply to Jesus that she knows that her brother will rise again shows that in common with the rest of us she pushes resurrection way into the future. Jesus will not have it and replies boldly, “I am the Resurrection and the life!” Resurrection now, today, not in the future.

 We can take the opportunity in these last weeks of Lent to examine our faith in times of loss and suffering, and our hope in the face of death. And if Jesus becomes the mainstay of our lives, we can experience resurrection and life in the here and now. After all, who really wants to wait?

Yet while we await Easter, can we not in our own way give life to fellow creatures by feeding a few poor people or at least by speaking words of lively encouragement? We can do it our way just as Jesus did it his.

PRAYER [Alcuin of York, 735 - 804] {69 years}

Eternal Light, shine into our hearts,

eternal Goodness, deliver us from evil,

eternal Power, be our support,

eternal Wisdom, scatter the darkness of our ignorance,

eternal Pity, have mercy upon us,

that with all our heart and mind and soul and strength

we may seek they face and be brought by thine infinite mercy

to thy holy presence, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.