FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT
3 APRIL 2022
In
the first reading, the people of Israel have lost all hope. The Babylonians had destroyed Jerusalem and
their sacred temple and dragged them into exile. They regard their long captivity in Babylon as
their grave. They see no way of returning
to their homeland to resume a normal life.
But the prophet Ezekiel speaks on behalf of God to tell them that God
will open the graves of their captivity and have them rise from them. God had promised that he would never abandon
his people, no matter how many times they had abandoned their promises to live
their Covenant with God. God can
accomplish what is impossible for humans.
That is
what Jesus does in the Gospel. Lazarus
has been in the tomb for four days.
There is absolutely no hope for him.
Jesus displays his power over death by raising Lazarus from the
dead. In restoring Lazarus to life,
Jesus works this last of his signs in Saint John’s Gospel to draw more people
to faith. Martha already has faith in
him. When she meets Jesus as he enters
Bethany, she chides him for not coming in time to save her brother. But she also makes three important faith
statements. She expresses her past
experience of Jesus. She insists that
Lazarus would not have died if he had been there. Then she speaks of her faith in the
present: “Even now I know that whatever
you ask of God, God will give you.” Then
she trusts that Jesus will raise Lazarus from the dead in the future.
During this
past year, the Elect have been growing in the faith articulated by Martha. As they have participated in the Rite of
Christian Initiation of Adults, they have come to believe that they will enter
into the watery tomb of our baptismal font together with Christ, who entered
his own tomb after being crucified. As
they emerge from those waters, they will be one with him in the new life
promised by his resurrection. They go
through the third and final Scrutiny at the 10:00 Mass today. We pray with them and for them that they are
delivered from whatever has entombed them in the past and kept them from
believing in Christ.
Martha invites the rest of us who
have been baptized to express our faith in Jesus Christ. We can look into our past and remember the
many ways that the Lord Jesus has been present to us, especially when we have
had to face the deaths of people close to us.
She invites us to see the ways in which the Lord is present now and be
grateful for the many blessings we enjoy.
We can express our confidence that the Lord Jesus will be present in the
future, even when it comes time for us to pass from this world to the next. We trust that the Lord Jesus keeps his
promise.
Martha’s most dramatic profession
of faith occurs when she states her belief that Jesus is the resurrection and
the life. We shared in the Lord’s
resurrection when we were baptized, and not just at some future time. We continue to share in the Lord’s
resurrection when we live in the spirit.
Saint Paul reminds us that we are no longer in the flesh. Baptism has freed us from being enslaved by
the power of sin. In the flesh, we live
completely for ourselves. In the spirit,
we are alive because of righteousness.
We can live primarily for God.
Jesus weeps at the tomb of Lazarus. He weeps not only because he hates the
reality of death. He weeps because so
many people have not come to believe in him. He weeps for us when we slip back
into living in the flesh. The Elect
invite us to bring those times to the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Restored to life in the spirit through the
Lord’s mercy, we can confidently express our conviction that Jesus Christ has
conquered the power of sin and death by entering into death himself. He is the resurrection and the life. Everyone who believes in him will never die.
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