FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT
18 MARCH 2018
When
the prophet Ezekiel speaks to his people, they are in an impossible
situation. They have been languishing in
exile in Babylon for years. The
Babylonians had killed their king, destroyed Jerusalem, and tore down the
Temple, dashing their hopes of returning home.
He speaks to them, telling them that God can deliver them from
impossible situations. Walking through a
field littered with dead bones, representing their current situation, he
reminds them that God will always be faithful to the Covenants – those
commitments of love enshrined in the floor of our church and featured in our
Lenten Series on Tuesday nights. God
will raise up those dead bones of his people, breathe life into them as he had
breathed life into clay and formed Adam, and return them to their homeland. Ezekiel insists that God keeps his
promises. Their eventual return from
exile will remind them of God’s faithfulness to his Covenants, even when they
had been unfaithful to their end of the deal.
When Jesus
approaches the tomb of his friend, Lazarus is in another hopeless
condition. He has been dead for four
days. There is no chance of him being
revived. Martha and Mary yell at Jesus
for not coming sooner. (We tend to yell
at people close to us!) Jesus marches to
the tomb filled with the deepest of emotions, because he hates death as much as
Martha and Mary do. He prays a prayer of
thanksgiving, showing that his power comes from the Father, and orders Lazarus
to come out of the tomb. Like Lazarus,
Jesus himself will die. Like Lazarus, he
will emerge from the tomb. Unlike
Lazarus, who will eventually die again, Jesus will be transformed through the
power of the resurrection and never die again.
Jesus has shown his power over the most impossible condition of
all: death!
On this
Fifth Sunday of Lent, we pray the final scrutiny over the Elect at the 10:00
Mass. At the Easter Vigil, they will
renounce Satan and all his empty promises, promise to trust God’s presence in
their lives, and enter into the waters of our Baptismal font, as Christ entered
into the tomb. They will emerge from
those waters, sharing fully in his life.
In the Scrutiny, we ask the Lord to remove any final doubt in the power
of Jesus Christ to bring them to new life.
As we
commend them to the Lord’s loving scrutiny and support them in their journey to
the Sacramental life of the Church, The Lord scrutinizes us who are
baptized! We have emerged from the
waters of baptism to share in the life of the risen Christ. Every time we have failed to live our
baptismal promises, every time we have failed to die to ourselves, we have
denied the power of the resurrection. In
his discussion with Martha and Mary, Jesus does not promise to be the
resurrection at some future time after their death. He promises to be the resurrection and the
life NOW! We already share in his
resurrection every time we die to our selfish interests, when we choose to be
humble, when we let go of our pride, and when we face our fears and trust that
he is present in our most impossible situations, including death.
During
these last two weeks of Lent, the best way we can prepare to celebrate the
Lord’s resurrection is to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation. As the Elect are freed from all sins in the
waters of Baptism, we are freed from our sinful failure to live our Baptismal
Promises when we bring our sins to the Confessional and trust in the Lord’s
merciful forgiveness. Come to the
Penance Service this Tuesday evening.
The Service gives us a chance to reflect together on God’s Word, examine
our conscience, and spend some time in silence.
There will be 21 priests available for individual confession and absolution. Restored to our Baptismal innocence, we will
make our own renunciation of sin and renew our baptismal promises at Easter,
renewing our trust that Jesus Christ is with us in the most impossible
situations.
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