5th Sunday of Lent Year A
“I am the resurrection and the life. If anyone believes in me, even though he dies he will live, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this”?
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: Amen! Good morning brothers and sisters in Christ! Today, as most of us have known by now, is the 5th Sunday of Lent year A.
Death is a mystery. Consciously or unconsciously we confront death every day. In human experience, death has always been the dragon that eats up our hopes and spoils our plans and casts a shadow over even the brightest day. Saint Augustine said it long ago: “Everything in life, good or bad, is uncertain, except death. Only death is certain.” Of course, the saint was only pointing out a simple truth which we human beings have known since the beginning of time. As the Psalmist says “Who can live and never see death?” (Psalm 89:49). When a child is born into this world, no one knows whether the infant will have good or bad health, will become rich or poor, famous or unknown, a sinner or a saint. What is certain about that child is that one day it will die. When death comes, there is no power on earth that is able to defy it. As Saint Augustine wrote “Fires, floods, military might, even the power of sovereigns can be combated and opposed; but death cannot be resisted.” A certain powerful king of France was heard to say on his deathbed: “Even with all my power, I cannot induce death to wait one more hour for me.” As we read in the Scriptures, “Since their days are determined, and the number of their months is known to you [Lord], and you have appointed the bounds that they cannot pass, look away from them” (Job 14:5). Death is an inescapable reality. It eats both the young, the middle and the old through Cancer, old age, accidents, wars, starvation and diseases. But for Christians, death is the supreme festival on the road to eternal life. We believe with prophet Ezekiel that out of the graves new life will emerge (Ezekiel 37: 12); and with St. Paul we trust that God who raised Jesus from the death will raise us also to new life (Romans 8: 11).
Three friends died in a plane crash and find themselves at the Gate of Heaven where St Peter questions them: “When you are in your casket and friends and family are mourning you, what would you like to hear them say about you?” The first person says, “I would like to hear them say that I was a great doctor and a great family man.” The second man says, “I would like to hear that I was a wonderful husband and school teacher:” and the third gentleman hesitated, and then says, “I would like to hear them say … Look!!! He is moving!!! He has come back to life”.
St. Irenaeus declared that “The glory of God is the human being fully alive”. There are three times in the Gospels that Jesus raised someone from the dead: the young daughter of Jairus, a synagogue official who was raised in her father’s house, (Matthew 9: 18-26, Mark 5: 21-43, Luke 8: 40-56). The son of a widow who was raised as he was being taken to the cemetery, (Luke 7: 11-17) and Lazarus in today’s Gospel, already buried for four days, (John 11: 11-44). While these people are all raised to life physically, St. Augustine recognizes that Gospel events, like sacraments, also communicate deeper spiritual realities to us. So, he interprets death more pertinently here in a spiritual sense – in the sense of sin. Recalling how the father of the Prodigal Son spoke of the sinful wayward life of his son in terms of death: “He was dead and has come back to life” (Luke 15: 32). In this sense, Augustine sees the death of the young girl whom Jesus raised in the house as depicting those sins which are locked up in our minds and hearts e.g. hatred, lust, envy, Jealousy and greed. These haven’t manifested in our actions but internally we have given in to them hence they are festering inside and poisoning our thoughts and our imaginations. In consenting to them, we have died. In raising the young girl, Jesus reminds all of us who have such interior sins that he can bring us to new life. St. Augustine sees the death of the young man who was being carried outside the gates of the city to be buried, in terms of sin that has come out of the mind and heart and manifests in our action e.g. hatred expressed in gossip, anger expressed in violence, lust expressed in sexual immorality and greed expressed in corruption. In raising this young man, Jesus teaches us that we who have died in our souls by such actions can be raised and come to new life. Finally, Lazarus who is already buried and stinking in the tomb symbolizes those trapped in habitual sin. Sin has not only come out of the heart into action but has now become a stinking habit: one is habitually gossiping, lying, cheating, selfish, violent, envious, greedy etc, etc; one is now addicted to drugs, sex, gambling, etc. Thus, Lazarus depicts the worst kind of sin.
But Jesus comes into this situation and raises Lazarus. Jesus goes into this furthest, smelliest, most disagreeable state and there invites us back to life. Thus, no one is irredeemable. However far you have strayed, whatever graves you are in, whatever is limiting your life, no one is beyond the reach of God’s redemptive mercy. It is quite disheartening that many have taken their lives because they feel hopeless in their condition e.g. addiction. Jesus wept as he approached the tomb of Lazarus, aggrieved at how sin – bad choices, could cripple and diminish us, his special creation. Jesus is weeping and calling out for you. Meanwhile, the raising of Lazarus was the most astounding of all the miracles of Jesus to the people of the time. Then, the traditional Jewish belief was that the soul of a dead person could still be with the body for three days after which it departs finally, never to return. It is then that decay sets in. Such was the view Martha expressed when she objected to the opening of Lazarus’ tomb because, as she said, “already there is a stink because he has been dead four days.” In other words, it is now a hopeless situation. Perhaps, Jesus intentionally delayed coming to the funeral to let the situation appear “impossible” before his intervention. The miracle therefore challenges the faithful to never give up hope even in the face of hopeless situations. However, we co-operate by faith for divine intervention in the circumstances of our life. In the raising of Lazarus, such faith is expressed through simply obeying instructions. Jesus issued three commands or instructions and all were obeyed to the letter. First, he asked that the stone be rolled away and the people did that. It must have been difficult coming to terms with that strange instruction given the state of the body. Yet, in obedience, they went ahead to roll away the stone without asking questions. Jesus didn’t command the stone to roll away all by itself because human co-operation is a condition for divine intervention in the circumstances of our life.We need to roll away the stones that stand between us and the action of God in our lives and in our world. For instance, by responding to this season of lent’s call for self-denial, we can begin to remove the inhibitive stones of selfishness in our own lives. We can use our votes or civil resistance to remove the inhibitive stones of corrupt civil leadership. God will not do by a miracle what we can easily do by ourselves. Secondly, Jesus ordered Lazarus the dead man to come out. And he gropes his way out of the dark tomb even with his body all wrapped up. The lesson here is that even a man rotting away in the tomb can still do something to death of Sin. We need to make the move to get hold of God’s saving hand extended to us.
Lastly, Jesus asked the people to unbind Lazarus and set him free. Though Lazarus could grope and stumble himself out of the tomb, he could not unbind himself. He needs the community to do that for him. By unbinding Lazarus and setting him free, the community is accepting Lazarus back as one of them. “Thus, the community also has a role to play in the full rehabilitation of her strayed members. Are we ready to unbind and accept one another especially those among us who are coming back from the place of death of sins? In the season of lent we are called to begin a spiritual return, as the Israelites returned from exile to their homeland. If we still find ourselves in the tomb of selfishness and greediness, we are called to come out of the tomb, as Lazarus came out. Our selfishness makes us hard and stiff towards others. Hardness and stiffness are companions of death, not of life. Look at a man at his birth; he is tender and supple, but at death, he is hard and stiff. Look at trees and grasses when they are alive, they are soft and flexible and when they are dead, they are breakable and dry.
Therefore we need conversion, constant conversion, from the sinfulness of the flesh and the self to the new life of the Spirit and love. Of course, any change for the better would cause pain and suffering. Only from human emptiness can a person find the fullness of God; only from darkness, comes the dawn. In the sunlight of happy days, faith may be golden; but it is in the midst of sadness and suffering that we are called to take the leap of faith. It is in the moment of human darkness that we are called to believe in our immortal destiny, beyond death.Finally, lent is nearing its end. God calls us again to change.
If we feel we are too settled to change, if we fear we have been too long in the grave of mediocrity, God can help us with his power. Lazarus came to life not by his own power but by the power of God. It is the power of God that enables us to break the fetters of fear-filled self-centeredness. Therefore, we must bring all our fears and frailties to God in prayer. Martha brought her sadness to the Lord and her sadness was transformed into a faith-experience, that her brother was not dead but alive with God. So instead of living in self-imposed darkness, let us bring our deepest fear and deadly darkness to God. God’s power combined with our own Lenten sacrifices can transform the water of commotion in our life into the wonders of creation. As we come to the Holy week, be alive and holy as our heavenly Father.
Have a spirit filled Sunday and a blessed week!
+Ab Matthew Audu Jos
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