This Fifth Sunday of Lent brings us readings about the triumph of life over death.
The prophet Ezekiel, in the first reading, speaks eloquently about how the Lord God will bring His people out of their graves. The Lord will raise people up, literally, from death to life. However, this is not all: the Lord will also give His people a country, He will not leave them homeless and wondering about. God will give His people their own soil, their own home, among the nations of the world. This is so that the people can then give glory and praise to their God, and may know that the Lord is God alone.
St. Paul, in his Letter to the Romans, says that “those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” By this, he means that those whose lives are dictated by, are run by, disordered desires and passions, cannot be pleasing in God’s sight. Brothers and sisters, we are not to be slaves to our passions and lusts: freedom is possible. Freedom is within reach. Through the sacraments, especially through Holy Mass and Confession, Christ re-generates you and me, He gives us new life and liberty. This liberty is so great that previously we thought it impossible. This is the new life in the Spirit, that St. Paul mentions, a new life of grace.
Our Gospel brought us the miraculous raising of Lazarus. Jesus was a great friend to Lazarus, Martha, and Mary. Yet, when Our Lord hears about the illness of Lazarus, He purposefully delays his arrival, He waits a few days, before directing His steps to the house at Bethany. Jesus says that this is in order to show “God’s glory.” Perhaps you too have been waiting for Our Lord Jesus, like Martha and Mary, watching for His arrival, maybe even getting impatient with God. Take note that God acts in His own time. Even with His dear friends, Jesus Christ acted on His own schedule and with His own plan. Our friendship with God does not mean that the Lord will be at our beck and call.
Lazarus falls ill, and he dies. Christ then performs a great sign, a great miracle, and raises Lazarus from the dead. Notice that before this happens, Jesus has conversations with Martha and Mary. He asks Martha if she believes that He is the Resurrection and the Life. Jesus also speaks with Mary, to see if she is disposed to believe in Him. Christ asks for their openness, for their belief, even in the midst of grief, before performing His miracle. In the end, Lazarus walks out of his tomb, he is unbound, and set free.
In our days, too, there is a sickness, which leads to a tomb, which leads to a grave. This sickness is living life as if God, as if the existence of the Most High, did not matter. This sickness is our tendency to make plans for personal life, work, and leisure, as if God did not enter the picture. Pope Francis put it this way: “The storm exposes our vulnerability and uncovers those false and superfluous certainties around which we have constructed our daily schedules, our projects, our habits and priorities” (Extraordinary Moment of Prayer, Pope Francis, March 27, 2020). In this, we are like poor Lazarus, who is getting sicker and sicker, and does not even know what his illness really is. Jesus the Christ is the one who sets us free, who unbinds us, who liberates us. His charity, His love burns brightly for each and every individual. But we need to ask Him for healing, we need to have at least some degree of openness: even the openness of Mary, whose first words to Jesus are words of reproach, is a good start. Mary, in fact, is disappointed with Christ, and she says, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
My brothers and sisters, this Sunday’s readings are a chronicle, an account, of the victory of life over death. We too can share this victory through Jesus Christ, who is the Resurrection and the Life. Let us choose to unite ourselves to His triumph. May Mother Mary, and St. Joseph the Just, assist us with their prayers in this task. Amen.
(Fr. Paweł Ratajczak, OMI, March 26, 2023)