Fifth Sunday of
Lent “A”
Introduction: On this 5th. 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.
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