April 10, 2011
Fifth Sunday of Lent
By Rev. Joe McCloskey, SJ
Thus says the Lord GOD: O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them, and bring you back to the land of Israel. Ezekiel 37:12
But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is alive because of righteousness. If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit that dwells in you. Romans 8:10-11
And Jesus raised his eyes and said, "Father, I thank you for hearing me. I know that you always hear me; but because of the crowd here I have said this, that they may believe that you sent me." And when he had said this, he cried out in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" The dead man came out, tied hand and foot with burial bands, and his face was wrapped in a cloth. So Jesus said to them, "Untie him and let him go." John 11:41-44
Piety
We are born to die. Life is a preparation for dying well. We come from God by Creation and we return to God by our death. We stall our dying by doctors and all the medicines we take to prolong the exile from God. It is Christ bring born into our world that gives us the dignity of life in Christ. We have to die to ourselves that we may be born again in Christ. We are created in the image and likeness of God by our birth. It is in Christ that we find our dignity and our fulfillment. Christ teaches us how to live and how to die. He is the ultimate statement on the part of God as to what it really means to live. Our piety brings out our connection to Christ. He shines forth in our lives as the meaning of life. We look at Christ through our prayer and we grow in Christ by the gifts of his life in the Sacraments. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. His love for Lazarus is his love for us. His bringing back Lazarus from his death is preview of what he waits to do for us. Christ rising from the dead gives us the fullness of our destiny. We have to die to rise with Christ. Christ will be calling us from our own tombs. The Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead gives life to our mortal bodies. We live by the Spirit of Life dwelling within us which gives us our destiny in Christ.
Study
We study the reaction of the Apostles to Christ going to the side of Lazarus. They knew the danger for Christ in his going to be with Lazarus. Thomas puts words on the danger. “Let us also go to die with him.” These were not idle worlds. They were aware of the danger to Christ in his going up to where his life was being plotted against. Do we love Christ so much that we would be willing to die with him? Lent is not just a joyous season because of the Resurrection. It is also our time to do penance for the ways we have fallen short in our friendship with Christ. Christ is willing to die for us. As we pray over what Christ did for us by being present to his passion and death we have an advantage over Christ. He had to die not knowing humanly speaking of the Resurrection because the human experience of the Resurrection had not yet happened. We are blessed with the realization that the victory over sin has been won by Christ. We do not see the suffering of Christ without the Resurrection being part of our vision. The (x+ y) equation of Salvation, Christ’s death and resurrection, we study so that our hearts may see the victory already won by Christ by our sufferings in his name. We live the equation of salvation by our prayer and reflection on the victory of Christ over sin. We join ourselves to his dying so that we may be part of his rising.
Action
We offer during Lent our prayer, fasting and good works so that our hearts may be on fire with what we can do as the Mystical Body of Christ. The arrival of Christ in heaven gives rest to his human body even as it passes on to us the job of proclaiming the good news. Christ has not simply died and risen. He has also passed on to us the responsibility of filling up what is wanting to his suffering in his Church. We are all part of the Mystical Body of Christ. Our sufferings are the suffering of Christ as he unites us to himself. We are his hands and his feet in how we take the extra steps to reach out in the name of Christ to the needs of our fellow members of the human race. Our prayer, fasting and good works are the way we become the love of Christ for the people of God. Our dying to ourselves is how we give life to the Mystical Body of Christ that is united to all the hungry, thirst, prisoners, sick and homeless of our world. What we do for the least one is how we reach Christ and become his saving love to our world.
