(Rembrandt van Rijn)
"Lazarus, come out!"
Ezekiel
37:12-14
Romans
8:8-11
John
11:1-45
Sunday Word: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/040217.cfm
I
distinctly remember about a month or so after my ordination, I received a
letter from my Bishop which reminded me to write my will and be sure to turn it
in to the Diocesan Office. I also remember
being very shocked that in the infancy of my priesthood I would now be reminded
about the end of it. I thought, “I was
just ordained! I’m only 27 years old, in
very good health, ready and eager to serve the Church so rather than being
welcomed why am I now being asked to think about my death? How long do you want
me around?”
The other
new priest ordained with me pretty much felt the same way. Although, we sort of
laughed about it we dutifully did arrange to have our wills written up, such
that they were. However, I’m still not certain that very early reminder was the
best way to welcome a new priest to the Diocese.
At any
rate, truth be told, none of us like to be reminded that our lives will someday
literally come to an end. And yes, it is a good idea to periodically update
your will. It can be a sobering and necessarily humbling moment. Yet, our
Christian perspective on death is not one of despair but of hope.
Fast
forward, I have now been around long enough to have celebrated numerous funeral
services for both young and old and all ages in-between. The funeral of a young person is particularly
hard both for the family and all present.
We are sad about what seems a young life cut short, we are grateful when
an elderly loved one passes after a long and full life yet share the sadness
they will no longer be around. Our
Catholic funeral liturgy is a beautiful testimony to our faith in the
resurrection of Jesus and that of our own. The funeral liturgy is truly a Mass
of Christian hope; hope for all that Jesus promises as we hear our Lord say in
the dramatic Gospel story this weekend: “I
am the resurrection and the life.”
Of all the
miracle stories in the Gospels I think the raising of Lazarus is certainly
among the most emotional and vivid. We
cannot help but feel the grief of Jesus who wept at hearing of the death of his
friend Lazarus. The pleading of Martha to Jesus to come to Bethany, Jesus
deliberate delay in going, and his meeting with Martha who states: “Lord, if you had been here my brother would
not have died,” is heart wrenching. Then,
the most dramatic moment, intensely portrayed in a number of movies on the life
of Christ, when Jesus demands the stone before Lazarus tomb be rolled away; he
then shouts, “Lazarus, come out!” and
the formally dead man walks out of the tomb. The burial cloths which bind his
body are removed and Lazarus is alive again.
If that doesn’t move you, check your pulse.
So, we can
certainly find ourselves caught in the scene and no doubt this miracle was the
final straw that broke the camels back as it were for Jesus. Not much later, he enters Jerusalem to the wave
of palm branches, adoring crowds and the authorities had enough – they plot his
demise. Yet, this story is not about
this event as much as it remains another story of faith. A moment of encounter with Jesus whose very
presence and invitation to Martha is the same for us: “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if
he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.
Do you believe this?”
Do you believe
that even in the face of what seems so final, death itself, God remains a
source for life, hope, transformation, and Christian joy? The story of the
raising of Lazarus is one of the “signs” that John relates for us. Water into wine was the first of Jesus’
“signs.” That is, that in this miracle
we look beyond what was done to the person who did it and as a result place our
faith in him. Jesus is the ‘sign” of the
Father’s presence among us; he is the Word of God who becomes a sign of the
Father’s love for humanity – and we are called to faith in him; to
transformation – new life in Christ.
Another
word we use for “sign” is sacrament or mysteries. For John his Gospel was
sacramental in nature. The miracles of
Jesus were identified as mysterious events, which made Jesus a very mysterious
man. Yet all of them brought the same result – the experience of an encounter
with the living Christ and a change to a new life and a call to faith in
Christ. The Samaritan woman discovered the Messiah and his endless “living
water.” The man born blind found the new sight of faith in the One who is “light
of the world.” And today, we are called to recognize that not even death itself
can stop the power of God to bring us eternal life and hope in this world.
These are reminders, “signs” of baptism (water at the well and the pool of
Siloam where the blind man washed) and the seed of faith planted in us due to
the washing away of our sinful blindness, darkness and even spiritual death. The
story of Lazarus has no symbol of water yet it is the power of Jesus’ word and
our faith in him that brings about a transformation – new life. "Lazarus, come out!" and he comes out alive.
As Bishop
Robert Barron noted these readings remind us of our own personal sin, our need
to quench our spiritual thirst for God, to heal the moral and spiritual
blindness caused by sin, and to bring us back from the many “tombs” we bury
ourselves in as a result of turning away from the life God offers us.
I have
always been moved in the Lazarus story that even in the face of death and in
her disappointment that Jesus did not come to Bethany when first told of
Lazarus terminal condition, even with all that Martha still knew that Jesus
could do something: “Lord, if you had
been here my brother would not have died.
But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.”
In the presence of what seems so final and absolute, you can still do
something. What great faith!
It is not
unlike Mary saying to the waiters at Cana, “Do whatever he tells you.” Or Jesus coming upon the funeral procession in
Nain (Lk 7: 11-17) and a grieving mother whose son had died when he said to the
dead son, “I say to you get up.” Gathered at supper with his Apostles that last fateful night, he says: "Take and eat. This is my Body . . . this is my Blood shed for you." And
because he says it, it is. "Lazarus, come out!" And he walks out alive.
While the
raising of Lazarus remains a profound moment in Jesus’ public ministry, it
remains for us a call to place our faith in the One whose word is truth. As Bishop Barron also says in reference to
Jesus: “Because he is who he says he is, what Jesus says is.” I am the resurrection and the life – and
we can be absolutely confident that our faith in him lifts us up, takes away
fear and provides hope even in the faith of temptation and darkness. When we turn to Christ Jesus we find not just
a wise teacher but a Savior who calls us to life and does for us what we could
never do for ourselves. The sacramental
signs of our Church are a living reminder to us that Christ continues to call
us to faith. In the upcoming Easter season
we see this particularly in Baptism, Confirmation, and the Holy Eucharist.
Let us not
forget, the celebration of our Eucharist, then, is that prime sign of his risen
presence with us. His Body and Blood
call us to unity and provide the confidence to keep on going as an essentially
optimistic people who are not overcome by fear, isolation, materialism, or
false hopes this world may provide.
We
confidently know that despite what might seem the end is really the beginning: “Even now, you can still do something.”
As true man he wept for Lazarus his friend
and as eternal God raised him from the tomb,
just as, taking pity on the human race,
he leads us by sacred mysteries to new life.
(From the Preface for 5th Sunday)
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