The Universal Church celebrates Sunday, March 26, 2023, as the Fifth Sunday of Lent – Year A. In the entrance antiphon we pray: “Give me justice, O God, and defend my cause against the wicked; rescue me from deceitful and unjust men. You, O God, are my refuge. Amen.”
The theme of this day’s Mass is the restoration of life. In the first reading, Ezekiel gives a vivid description of the vision of the valley of dry bones coming alive and becoming a great, immense army. “These bones are the whole house of Israel” which God restores to life as a sign of his power at work among his people. The same initiative and power are seen in Saint John’s Gospel when Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. Prophet Ezekiel’s vision becomes a reality in Jesus Christ through whom God’s Spirit restores life to the dead. In the second reading from Saint Paul’s Letter to the Romans, Christ, the first born of all creation, is raised from the dead by the power of God’s Spirit. The more we allow God’s Spirit to touch us, the more we are freed from the bondage of sin. Let us pray in the course of this Eucharist for the grace to follow Christ more closely, he who gives life and raises us up from the death of sin.
First Reading: Ezekiel 37: 12-14.
The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. He said to me, "Mortal, can these bones live?" I answered, "O Lord God, you know." Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord." So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live." I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude. Then he said to me, "Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, 'Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.' Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act," says the Lord.
Comment
Before we consider the passage selected for our reflection this day, let’s take a quick at the background of Ezekiel, whom someone has described as a prophet for the new society on the land of God. Ezekiel performed his prophetic ministry during the Babylonian exile, that is, from about the year 592 BC to about the year 570 BC. Ezekiel, whose name in Hebrew means “God strengthens” or “May God strengthen”, was taken together with King Jehoiachin and the most prominent people in Jerusalem as exiles to Babylon in 597 BC when Nebuchadnezzar captured the city. It is from Babylon, therefore, that Ezekiel preached the message received from God for the exiles and also for those who remained in the land of Israel after the deportation.
As it is the case with the other prophets, God called Ezekiel to urge his people to remain faithful to him and his covenant. Ezekiel directed his message mainly to his fellow exiles, but he also addressed those who remained in Judah.
In the passage selected for our meditation this day, God makes a promise of life to people who, like dry bones, have no more hope of living. To a people who have been crushed, demoralized and deported into exile, Ezekiel announces the resurrection. The spirit of God, creator and liberator, will give life to this people who have been crushed by disgrace.
The remarkable vision of the bones being brought to life sets the scene for the climax of the resurgence of Israel, the unification of the two kingdoms of Judah and Israel. The dramatic contrast drawn here between death and life, bones and spirit, shows that the revival that God will bring about goes much further than the mere material reconstruction of the promised land; it implies rather a new beginning, both personal and social.
Ezekiel, the appointed watchman of Israel, has the task of encouraging the despondent exiles of God’s future blessings. The exiles are as dry bones in the desert. The vision of the dry bones is one of the great visions of the prophet, which takes place with the hand of the Lord upon him. The prophet, however, sees this vision of dry bones becoming a great, immense army and understands that God’s spirit is about to achieve the same for this hopeless people; it will raise them from their graves of despair. Ezekiel as always points to the divine initiative in this resurrection; it will be a sign of God’s power at work in his people. When God acts, life is born. The message here is that God acts to restore life. The same initiative and power will be seen later in the Gospel when Christ raises Lazarus from the dead, presenting his act as a sign of his own resurrection.
Let us pray to God, restorer of life, to send his Holy Spirit to guide us as we walk towards the light of Easter. May we never despair because we are children of God, who never abandons his own. Amen.
Second Reading: Romans 8: 8-11.
To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God's law -- indeed it cannot, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.
Comment
Some background information to the Letter to the Romans may help us to better understand the content of the passage we are called to meditate upon this day. This letter is the longest, most influential and rewarding of Paul’s undisputed letters. Paul was not the founder of the Church of Rome. Historians attribute its founding to Jewish Christians from Judaea or by Jews who had been converted to Christianity while on pilgrimage to Jerusalem. There was a good deal of traveling between Rome and Jerusalem at that time. Rome was the most important city in the world, the center of the then known world.
Paul’s message to the Romans concentrates on three major elements: the need of all people for the unmerited justification that can be found only in Christ; the new life of hope and freedom in Christ that God’s love has given to all through this justification; and the problem of the failure of Israel, God’s favoured people, to attain this life. In it, Paul insists on Jesus as both Messiah of Israel and Lord of the Gentiles.
Chapter 8 from where the passage for our meditation is taken is considered the climax of the Letter to the Romans. Paul has shown how faith in the Gospel and God’s saving work for men through the death and resurrection of Christ have freed Christians from sin, death and the Law of Moses, to which “unspiritual things” had led them.
Man has been unable to free himself from sin through his own efforts or even with the help of the Old Law. But what is impossible for man is possible for God. God in fact freed man from sin by sending his own Son, who became man and conquered sin through his death. If we unite ourselves to the merits of Christ and obtain a share in his resurrection, we too can overcome sin. In a homily on the Letter to the Romans, Saint John Chrysostom says that “We need to submit to the spirit, to wholeheartedly commit ourselves and strive to keep the flesh in its place. By so doing our flesh will become spiritual again. Otherwise, if we give in to the easy life, this will lower our soul to the level of the flesh and make it carnal again.”
Let us pray for the Holy Spirit to strengthen our faith so that we can journey towards the light of Easter free of sin. Amen.
Gospel: John 11: 1 - 45.
Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, "Lord, he whom you love is ill." But when Jesus heard it, he said, "This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God's glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it." Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. Then after this he said to the disciples, "Let us go to Judea again." The disciples said to him, "Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?" Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this world. But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them." After saying this, he told them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him." The disciples said to him, "Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right." Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead. For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him." Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him." When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him." Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day." Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" She said to him, "Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world." When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, "The Teacher is here and is calling for you." And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to him, "Lord, come and see." Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, "See how he loved him!" But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?" Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, "Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days."
Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, "Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me." When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go." Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.
Comment
The raising of Lazarus from the dead ranks as one of the most outstanding miracles Jesus ever performed. Our Lord was very attached to this family which he visited often prior to his passion. That explains his intense emotions when Lazarus, his friend, dies.
By raising Lazarus to life, Christ shows his divine power over death. The Jews believed that the soul of a dead person somehow remains with the body for three days. After three days the soul departs finally from the body never to return, and that is when the body starts to decay and that is why Martha objects to the opening of the tomb, saying, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.”
But Jesus is the resurrection and the life and through his own death and resurrection he brings about our own resurrection from the dead. For us, Christians, death is therefore not the end; it is simply the setup to eternal life. At death, life is changed, not ended.
The Gospel story reminds us that Jesus, who raises his friend to life, has the power to give us eternal life since he is the ‘life and the resurrection’. He raises us to life everyday by calling us away from all that leads to sin. But do we listen to him? Jesus calls on us to cooperate with him so he can raise us from the death into which sin has plunged us.
We cooperate with him through faith, practical obedience and doing his will. To effect the miracle, Jesus issues three commands and all of them are obeyed to the letter. That is how the miracle happens.
First, he commands the people to roll away the stone, which they obey. He is also commanding you and me this instant to roll away the stone that is hiding sin in our heart. Human cooperation activates divine power and non-cooperation stifles it. In other words, God will only perform a miracle in our life if we obey and cooperate with him.
The second command Jesus gives is directed to the dead man: “Lazarus, come out!” and the dead man comes out. This is an extraordinary miracle which proves that Christ is indeed the Son of God, sent to the world by his Father to raise us up to eternal life. When Lazarus is brought back to life, people’s faith in Jesus increases.
Jesus’ third command is addressed to the people: “Unbind him, and let him go.” Even though Lazarus could stumble his way out of the tomb, there was no way he could unbind himself. He needs the community to do that for him. By unbinding Lazarus and setting him free from the death bands, the community is accepting him back as one of them.
By raising Lazarus from the dead Jesus demonstrates his power over life and death. His act points the way to the moment he too will come out of the tomb, of his own freewill, the Lord of all life.
Many Christian communities and individuals today have fallen victim to the death of sin. Many are already in the tomb of hopelessness and decay, in the bondage of sinful habits and attitudes. Nothing short of a miracle can bring us back to life in Christ. But Jesus is always ready for the miracle. He himself said, “I came that they may have life, and have it in abundance.” The question is, are we ready to cooperate with him for the miracle? Are we ready to roll away the stone that stands between us and the light of Christ’s face? Are we ready to take the first step to come out of the place of death? Are we ready to unbind (i.e. forgive) one another and let them go free? These are the various ways we can cooperate with God in the miracle of renewing and reviving us as individuals, as a church and as a nation. Let us pray for the grace to forgive one another and help one another rise out of the tomb of sin. Amen.
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