FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT
17 MARCH 2024
Saint Paul
writes to the Romans to tell them that they are no longer in the flesh. Those in the flesh cannot please God. Those in the spirit are joined to the Body of
Christ when they are baptized. In
contrasting flesh with spirit, Saint Paul is not saying that our bodies are bad
and our souls are good. Those in the
flesh cannot recognize any reality beyond what they experience with their five
senses. Those in the spirit, on the
other hand, have come to believe in what is beyond their senses: God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit
inviting them to put their trust in much more than they could ever experience with
their senses. Those in the spirit accept
the Paschal Mystery and are confident that they too can share in the greatest
Mystery: the resurrection from the dead
of Jesus Christ.
Today,
Jesus works his seventh and greatest miracle in the Gospel of John. Even though he loves his friend, Lazarus, he
waits two more days before going to Bethany.
When he arrives, Martha, the sister of Lazarus, chides him for not being
there. Good friends can yell at
another. Her sister, Mary, joins her
with the same rebuke. When Jesus asks
her, Martha says that she believes that Jesus is the resurrection and the
life. After grieving over the death of
his friend, Jesus prays to the Father and calls Lazarus from the tomb. Not too much later, Jesus will enter that
same death. Unlike Lazarus, who must die
again, Jesus will have his trust in the Father rewarded by being raised from
the dead, never to die again.
At the
10:00 Mass today, we celebrate the third and last Scrutiny with our Elect. We will lay hands on them and pray that they
will be protected from the temptations of the devil. In their year-long
formation, they have been preparing to die to the flesh when they enter into
the watery tomb of baptism. As they
emerge, they will share fully in the person of Jesus Christ. One with Christ through his Spirit given in
Confirmation, they will share his promise of resurrection.
It is
important for the rest of us to hear today’s readings and deepen our faith as
we prepare to renew our baptismal promises at Easter. Saint Paul says that even
though the promise of the resurrection is given to us in baptism, the effects
of the promise are not guaranteed. We
can turn our backs on that promise and return to living in the flesh. That is why we embrace the disciplines of
Lent to turn our faith more completely to the One who was raised from the dead.
When we
pray the Nicene Creed, we reaffirm our faith in the promise of our bodily
resurrection. Father Alexander Schmemann
helps us to clarify what Saint Paul is talking about and how to understand the
importance of our bodies as we grow in faith.
“In the long and difficult effort of spiritual recovery, the Church does
not separate the soul from the body. The
whole person has fallen away from God; the whole person is to be restored, the
whole person is to return. The
catastrophe of sin lies precisely in the victory of the ‘flesh’ – the animal,
irrational, the lust in us – over the spiritual and the divine. But the body is glorious, the body is holy,
so holy that God himself ‘became flesh.’
Salvation and repentance then are not contempt for the body or neglect
of it, but restoration of the body to its real function as the expression and
the life of the spirit, as the temple of the priceless human soul.”
As members
of the Body of Christ, we use our Lenten disciplines of fasting, prayer, and
almsgiving to draw us away from the animal, irrational, and lust in us to
embrace more fully the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Two weeks ago, the woman at the well taught
us that Jesus Christ is the Way. Last
week, the man born blind showed us Christ as the Truth. Today, Lazarus reveals Christ as the
Life. Jesus promises resurrection. We must remain open to that promise.
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