26th March >> Fr. Martin’ Gospel Reflections / Homilies on John 11:1-45 for the Fifth Sunday of Lent, Cycle A: ‘I am the resurrection and the life’. (2024)

26th March >> Fr. Martin’ Gospel Reflections / Homilies on John 11:1-45 for the Fifth Sunday of Lent, Cycle A:‘I am the resurrection and the life’.

Fifth Sunday of Lent, Cycle A

Gospel (Except USA)

John 11:1-45

I am the resurrection and the life.

There was a man named Lazarus who lived in the village of Bethany with the two sisters, Mary and Martha, and he was ill. It was the same Mary, the sister of the sick man Lazarus, who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair. The sisters sent this message to Jesus, ‘Lord, the man you love is ill.’ On receiving the message, Jesus said, ‘This sickness will end not in death but in God’s glory, and through it the Son of God will be glorified.’ Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, yet when he heard that Lazarus was ill he stayed where he was for two more days before saying to the disciples, ‘Let us go to Judaea.’ The disciples said, ‘Rabbi, it is not long since the Jews wanted to stone you; are you going back again?’ Jesus replied:

‘Are there not twelve hours in the day?A man can walk in the daytime without stumblingbecause he has the light of this world to see by;but if he walks at night he stumbles,because there is no light to guide him.’

He said that and then added, ‘Our friend Lazarus is resting, I am going to wake him.’ The disciples said to him, ‘Lord, if he is able to rest he is sure to get better.’ The phrase Jesus used referred to the death of Lazarus, but they thought that by ‘rest’ he meant ‘sleep’, so Jesus put it plainly, ‘Lazarus is dead; and for your sake I am glad I was not there because now you will believe. But let us go to him.’ Then Thomas – known as the Twin – said to the other disciples, ‘Let us go too, and die with him.’

On arriving, Jesus found that Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days already. Bethany is only about two miles from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to sympathise with them over their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus had come she went to meet him. Mary remained sitting in the house. Martha said to Jesus, ‘If you had been here, my brother would not have died, but I know that, even now, whatever you ask of God, he will grant you.’ ‘Your brother’ said Jesus to her ‘will rise again.’ Martha said, ‘I know he will rise again at the resurrection on the last day.’ Jesus said:

‘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?’

‘Yes, Lord,’ she said ‘I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who was to come into this world.’

When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in a low voice, ‘The Master is here and wants to see you.’ Hearing this, Mary got up quickly and went to him. Jesus had not yet come into the village; he was still at the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who were in the house sympathising with Mary saw her get up so quickly and go out, they followed her, thinking that she was going to the tomb to weep there.

Mary went to Jesus, and as soon as she saw him she threw herself at his feet, saying, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’ At the sight of her tears, and those of the Jews who followed her, Jesus said in great distress, with a sigh that came straight from the heart, ‘Where have you put him?’ They said, ‘Lord, come and see.’ Jesus wept; and the Jews said, ‘See how much he loved him!’ But there were some who remarked, ‘He opened the eyes of the blind man, could he not have prevented this man’s death?’ Still sighing, Jesus reached the tomb: it was a cave with a stone to close the opening. Jesus said, ‘Take the stone away.’ Martha said to him, ‘Lord, by now he will smell; this is the fourth day.’ Jesus replied, ‘Have I not told you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?’ So they took away the stone. Then Jesus lifted up his eyes and said:

‘Father, I thank you for hearing my prayer.I knew indeed that you always hear me,but I speak for the sake of all these who stand round me,so that they may believe it was you who sent me.’

When he had said this, he cried in a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, here! Come out!’ The dead man came out, his feet and hands bound with bands of stuff and a cloth round his face. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, let him go free.’

Many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary and had seen what he did believed in him.

Gospel (USA)

John 11:1–45

I am the resurrection and the life.

Now a man was ill, Lazarus from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who had anointed the Lord with perfumed oil and dried his feet with her hair; it was her brother Lazarus who was ill. So the sisters sent word to Jesus saying, “Master, the one you love is ill.” When Jesus heard this he said, “This illness is not to end in death, but is for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that he was ill, he remained for two days in the place where he was. Then after this he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.” The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you, and you want to go back there?” Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in a day? If one walks during the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if one walks at night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” He said this, and then told them, “Our friend Lazarus is asleep, but I am going to awaken him.” So the disciples said to him, “Master, if he is asleep, he will be saved.” But Jesus was talking about his death, while they thought that he meant ordinary sleep. So then Jesus said to them clearly, “Lazarus has died. And I am glad for you that I was not there, that you may believe. Let us go to him.” So Thomas, called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go to die with him.”

When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, only about two miles away. And many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him; but Mary sat at home. Martha said to Jesus, “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.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise.” Martha said to him, “I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus told her, “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?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.”

When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary secretly, saying, “The teacher is here and is asking for you.” As soon as she heard this, she rose quickly and went to him. For Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still where Martha had met him. So when the Jews who were with her in the house comforting her saw Mary get up quickly and go out, they followed her, presuming that she was going to the tomb to weep there. When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell 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 had come with her weeping, he became perturbed and deeply troubled, and said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Sir, come and see.” And Jesus wept. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him.” But some of them said, “Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man have done something so that this man would not have died?”

So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay across it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the dead man’s sister, said to him, “Lord, by now there will be a stench; he has been dead for four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. 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.”

Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary and seen what he had done began to believe in him.

Reflections (6)

(i)Fifth Sunday of Lent

One of the great gifts in life is friendship. We value friends who remain faithful to us in good times and in bad, when all is well with us and when life goes against us. Sometimes we become friends with a whole family, which is a very special blessing. The family might invite us to join them for important events in their lives. We rejoice with them when they celebrate. We also share in their sorrows. If some misfortune comes to the family, we are deeply touched by it.

Today’s gospel reading shows that Jesus was a friend of the family of Martha, Mary and Lazarus. Jesus needed friends, just like the rest of us, and this family of two sisters and a brother had come to befriend him. When he called to them, he knew he was among friends; he could relax in their company. The gospel readings says simply, ‘Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus’. This was the love of friendship. When the sisters sent word to Jesus about their seriously ill brother, they simply said, ‘Lord, the one you love is ill’. If we hear that a close friend is ill, we try to visit them straight away. Yet, when Jesus heard that Lazarus was ill, ‘he stayed where he was for two more days’ before finally saying to his disciples, ‘Let us go Judea’, to Bethany, the home of Martha, Mary and Lazarus. Jesus deliberately waited until Lazarus died before going to Bethany; he let Lazarus die. If he really loved Lazarus, why did he wait? We sense the sisters’ sense of disappointment, and even anger, in their words to Jesus when he finally arrived, ‘If you had been here, my brother would not have died’. It is as if they were saying, ‘Why weren’t you here when we needed you most?’ Martha and Mary were people of faith who struggled to understand why the Lord hadn’t come in time to heal their brother when they sent for him. As people of faith, we too can find ourselves wondering why the Lord doesn’t respond to our call for help with much greater urgency. Whey do our loved ones die when we have prayed so hard for them to get better? Why does the Lord let them die?

In reality, Jesus’ delay in coming to Mary and Martha was an expression of his love for them. It was because he loved them that he delayed. He wanted to show the sisters, and his disciples, that God’s life giving power at work through him could not only heal the sick but could also bring life to those who had died. Jesus went on to raise Lazarus from the dead and restore him to his sisters. Of course, Lazarus would die again someday, as would Martha and Mary. However, in raising Lazarus from the dead, Jesus was showing that he had power over death. His restoring Lazarus to physical life was a sign that he could bring all who believe in him to eternal life. That is why the real climax of this story is not so much Jesus restoring Lazarus to physical life but the words he speaks to Martha, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. If anyone believes in me, even though they die, they will live, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die’. These are words which are not just addressed to Martha but also to his disciples, including all of us who seek to be his disciples today. They are words that have given hope to grieving believers down through the centuries. Jesus is saying that the bond with him which our faith in him creates in this life will not be broken by death. Our communion with him, which is the fruit of our faith, will endure beyond death. Indeed, our communion with the Lord will be deepened beyond death as we come to share in his own risen life. There is a sense in which we already share in the Lord’s risen life here and now through our faith in him, and we will have a much fuller and richer sharing in his risen life beyond death.

Having made that wonderful promise to Martha, he asks, ‘Do you believe this?’ It is a question that is addressed to us all. He is asking, ‘Do you believe that my love for you will never end, that my friendship endures beyond death?’ The family of Martha, Mary and Lazarus represent us all. Jesus who befriended this family befriends us all. Later on in this gospel of John, in the setting of the Last Supper, Jesus will say to his disciples, who represent us all, ‘I do not call you servants any longer… I have called you friends’. We often speak of life-long friends. The Lord’s friendship lasts not just for our earthly lives but endures into eternal life. His greatest expression of friendship towards us was his death on the cross. As he said in that setting of the last supper, ‘No one has great love than this, to lay one’s life for one’s friends’. Through his death, and resurrection, Jesus continuously draws us to himself in love, thereby bringing us to share in his own risen life over which death has no power.

And/Or

(ii)Fifth Sunday of Lent

As the days get longer and the signs of growth in nature become more obvious, we can begin to feel that winter is loosening its grip on us. The weather may still be cold, but, somehow, we sense that the worst is over. The signs of new life in nature are the promise of more to come. Nature’s awakening from its sleep will mean more work for some. The growing grass will eventually need its first cut. The weeds that come with the flowers will need to be managed. However, the prospect of some extra gardening does not diminish our longing for the new life we associate with spring and summer. As nature begins to come alive again, many people also feel more alive at this time of the year. The longer evenings call us forth, and we find ourselves doing more walking than we have done for some months.

Yet, not everyone will be feeling more alive in these early days of spring. Those who have been recently bereaved will be feeling drained of life and energy. They may feel that a part of themselves has died, and that in a very real sense they are less alive now. Others among us may be feeling drained of life for a host of other reasons. Some may be struggling with some kind of illness; others may be trying to cope with an experience of rejection or deep disappointment; some may be struggling to come to terms with an experience of personal failure; others may be overworked and overtired. For a variety of reason, as individuals, as families, as a community, we can be feeling less alive than we want to be and are capable of being.

In today’s gospel reading, a family who were struggling with the serious illness of one of their members sent to Jesus, their friend, for help. ‘He whom you love is ill’, was the message from this distraught family. By the time Jesus arrived, this family’s struggle with serious illness had given way to the more life-draining struggle with death. The message to Jesus now was, ‘If you had been here, my brother would not have died’. We can sense in that statement the family’s anguish, disappointment, and, perhaps, anger. Yet, Jesus entered fully into that family’s deep grief, and went on to call Lazarus out of his tomb, to bring him from death to life, and to bring his family from darkness to light. In doing so, he revealed himself as the resurrection and the life.

When Jesus said to Martha, ‘I am the resurrection and the life’, he immediately went on to ask her, ‘Do you believe this?’ The evangelist intends that the readers of his gospel would hear this question as addressed to them. We are each asked to belief that Jesus is the resurrection and the life for us, and that he has the power to call us out of our tombs, to lead us from death to life. Those words of Jesus have given many of us hope in the face of the death of loved ones. We trust that our loved ones who have believed in Jesus will live beyond death; we believe that we ourselves, in virtue of our relationship with Jesus, already live with a life that physical death will not diminish or, much less, destroy.

Yet, we also believe that the Lord who calls us out of the tomb of physical death is also calling us out of other tombs we may have built for ourselves. In the first reading, the Lord, speaking through the prophet Ezekiel, says: ‘I mean to raise you from your graves, my people, and lead you back to the soil of Israel’. The grave or the tomb in question was the tomb of exile in a foreign land. In the second reading, St. Paul mentions that our body may be dead because of sin. Certain lifestyles can entomb us, and drain us of life. The choices we make as individuals can damage and diminish us, both physically and spiritually. We are more aware today than ever before that our various institutions can also entomb us, by acting in ways that are not respectful of our dignity as people made in the image and likeness of God. The Lord came that we may have life and have it to the full. He is constantly calling us out of our various tombs, out of those situations that diminish us and that rob us of what St. Paul calls the glorious freedom of the children of God. This is the freedom of those whose lives are in tune with the Spirit of God.

In calling people out of their tombs, the Lord looks to us to help him in this work. When Jesus came to the tomb of Lazarus, he first called on people to ‘Take the stone away’. Having called Lazarus forth from his tomb, he then called on those present to ‘Unbind him, let him go free’. The Lord involved others in his life-giving work. He looks to us today to be channels of his life-giving presence to others. We have the awesome capacity to give life to others or to take life from them. We are too well aware of the growing number of murders in our land. Today’s gospel challenges to be life-givers in a world where the taking of life has become much more common than it used to be. We might reflect today on what the Lord’s words in the gospel reading could mean for each of us concretely - ‘Take the stone away’, ‘Unbind him, let him go free’. If the Spirit of God has made his home in us, as Paul states in the second reading, we cannot underestimate our capacity to be life-givers for others. There is some life-giving work that, with the Lord’s help, we can do for someone or for some group, and, which, if we do not do it, may never get done.

And/Or

(iii)Fifth Sunday of Lent

As the days get longer and the signs of growth in nature become more obvious, we can begin to feel that winter is loosening its grip on us. The signs of new life in nature are the promise of more to come. Nature’s awakening from its sleep will mean more work for some. The growing grass will eventually need its first cut. The weeds that come with the flowers will need to be managed. However, the prospect of some extra gardening does not diminish our longing for the new life we associate with spring and summer. As nature begins to come alive again, many people also feel more alive at this time of the year. The longer evenings call us forth, and we find ourselves doing more walking than we have done for some months.

Yet, not everyone will be feeling more alive in these early days of spring. Those who have been recently bereaved will be feeling drained of life and energy. Others may be struggling with illness or trying to cope with some rejection or deep disappointment. Some may be struggling to come to terms with an experience of personal failure; others may be just overworked and overtired. For a variety of reason, as individuals, as families, as a community, we can be feeling less alive than we want to be.

In today’s gospel reading, a family who were struggling with the serious illness of one of their members sent to Jesus, their friend, for help, ‘He whom you love is ill’. By the time Jesus arrived, this family’s struggle with illness had given way to the more life-draining struggle with death. Their message to Jesus now was, ‘If you had been here, my brother would not have died’. We can sense in that statement their anguish, disappointment, and, perhaps, anger. Yet, Jesus entered fully into that family’s deep grief, and went on to call Lazarus out of his tomb, to bring him from death to life, and to bring his family from darkness to light. In doing so, he revealed himself as the resurrection and the life.

When Jesus said to Martha, ‘I am the resurrection and the life’, he immediately went on to ask her, ‘Do you believe this?’ The evangelist intends that we, the readers of his gospel, would hear this question as addressed to us. We are each asked to believe that Jesus is the resurrection and the life for us, and that he has the power to call us out of our various tombs, to lead us from death to life. Those words of Jesus have given many of us hope in the face of the death of loved ones. We trust that our loved ones who have believed in Jesus will live beyond death; we believe that we ourselves, in virtue of our relationship with Jesus, already live with a life that will endure beyond death.

Yet, we also believe that the Lord who calls us out of the tomb of physical death is also calling us out of other tombs we may have built for ourselves or others may have built for us. In the first reading, the Lord, speaking through the prophet Ezekiel, says: ‘I mean to raise you from your graves, my people, and lead you back to the soil of Israel’. The grave or the tomb in question was the tomb of exile in a foreign land. In the second reading, St. Paul mentions that our body may be dead because of sin. Certain lifestyles can entomb us, and drain us of life. The choices we make as individuals can damage and diminish us, both physically and spiritually. Other people can also build tombs for us by what they do and say. The Lord declares earlier in John’s gospel that he came that we may have life, and have it to the full. He is constantly working within us and among us to lead us out of our various tombs, out of those situations that rob us of what St. Paul calls, in his letter to the Romans, the glorious freedom of the children of God.

In drawing people out of their tombs, the Lord also looks to us to help him in this work. When Jesus came to the tomb of Lazarus, he first called on people to ‘Take the stone away’. He then called on them to ‘Unbind him, let him go free’. The Lord involved others in his life-giving work. He continues to look to us today to be channels of his life-giving presence to others. We have the awesome capacity to give life to others or to take life from them. Today’s gospel challenges to be the Lord’s life-givers in a world where the taking of life has become much more common than it used to be. If the Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead is living in us, as Paul states in the second reading, we cannot underestimate our capacity to be life-givers for others. There is some life-giving work that, with the Lord’s help, we can do for someone or for some group, and, which, if we do not do it, may never get done.

And/Or

(iv)Fifth Sunday of Lent

Some of us will be familiar with this gospel reading from funerals we may have attended. In particular, the words of Jesus to Martha can continue to speak powerfully to us as we struggle with the loss of a loved one and as we contemplate our own mortality, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. If anyone believes in me, even though they die, they will live, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die’. The question that is addressed to Martha, ‘Do you believe this?’ is addressed to each one of us. In response to that question we strive to make our own the wonderful response of Martha, ‘Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who was to come into this world’. She articulates for us the response we all called to make to Jesus identifying himself as the resurrection and the life.

The experience of death is one that affects us more deeply than any other human experience. The death of Lazarus affected his sisters Martha and Mary very deeply. We can sense Martha’s disappointment at the absence of Jesus when their brother died, even her anger, in her words to Jesus, ‘If you had been here my brother would not have died’. It was as if she was saying to him, ‘Why couldn’t you have prevented this?’ It is a question that many of us may have found ourselves asking in the face of the death of a loved one. We pray for someone who is ill to be cured and it doesn’t happen; they die. We wonder why the Lord did not hear our prayer, just as Martha and Mary wondered why Jesus did not respond immediately to their request to come, instead of staying where he was for two more days. The experience of death brings out strong emotions in us, anger, deep sorrow, guilt and regret, despondency and discouragement.

When Jesus finally arrived at Bethany, the death of Lazarus and the great grief surrounding his death brought out great emotions in him. The gospel reading says that Jesus had great distress and spoke with a sigh that came straight from the heart and that he burst into tears. He entered fully into the emotional trauma that death brought to this family. Jesus and the two sisters of Lazarus show us that, even for those of deep faith, death is a dark and disturbing experience. When we lose someone close to us we will be deeply traumatized, no matter how strong our faith is, and we will always need to give ourselves plenty of time to heal and to be restored. That can be just as true of the other experiences of loss that we have to negotiate in life, because there is more than one form of death. As well as a loved one dying, a relationship that has been central to our identity can die, and we find ourselves in a very similar place to where Martha and Mary are in today’s gospel reading. The emotions around such an experience of loss can be just as strong as the emotions around the death of a loved one; the time it takes to heal and recover can be just as long. This morning’s gospel reading suggests that the risen Lord knows our own experiences of loss from within. He not only shared the experience of loss of Mary and Martha, he himself knew what it was to lose everything. Even his clothes were taken from him, as he hung from the cross.

Today’s gospel reading acknowledges the dark side of human experience for believers, for people like Martha and Mary who believe in Jesus and love him. The gospel shows Jesus entering into their darkness and working from within it, bringing light out of the darkness and life out of death. That is how the Lord relates to all of us in those times when we struggle with disturbing and traumatic loses. Although the experience of death may seem to indicate that the Lord is absent, just as he was physically absent at the moment of Lazarus’s death, in reality, at such times he is powerfully present to us as the resurrection and the life, as the one who keeps assuring us that for those who believe in him where there is death there is also life. Martha found it hard to believe that where there death seemed to reign there could also be life. When Jesus called on people to take the stone away from the tomb of Lazarus she strongly objected. As a faithful Jew she could conceive of life for her brother only in the distant future on the last day, but not here and now. The action of Jesus in raising her brother showed her that there is life in the midst of death, and not just after death in some indeterminate future. As we struggle with our own experiences of death, whatever form they may take, the gospel reading assures us that the Lord is not absent at such times but is present as the resurrection and the life, working here and now to bring new life out of our various deaths.

And/Or

(v)Fifth Sunday of Lent

When we find ourselves in a vulnerable place, perhaps due to illness or some other cause, we appreciate the presence of family and friends. When we are weak, we depend on the strength of others. When we are immobile we rely on the mobility of others. At the beginning of today’s gospel reading we find a family of two sisters and a brother who are in a very vulnerable place. The brother of the two sisters, Lazarus, is seriously ill. Jesus is a friend of this family. We are told that he loved, Lazarus and his sisters, Martha and Mary. Yet, when the sisters sent word to Jesus that their brother was seriously ill, Jesus did not respond immediately, in spite of the urgency of the situation. So often in the gospels, Jesus responds immediately to total strangers who approach him for help. On this occasion, however, he does not respond immediately to those who were his close friends. By the time Jesus finally arrives, Lazarus has died. We can hear the disappointment of the two sisters with Jesus, and perhaps even their anger, in the way that they greet him, ‘If you had been here, my brother would not have died’. We can almost hear the question, ‘Why did you delay?’ ‘Where were you when we needed you?’

In our own lives, we can find ourselves asking those same questions of the Lord. We pray for someone we love and our prayer seems to go unanswered. We desperately want the Lord to heal our loved one who is seriously ill and close to death and the Lord does not respond to our cry for help. Like Martha and Mary we are left wondering why the Lord seems so silent and so absent. The gospels suggest that this was Jesus’ own experience as he hung from the cross. As he cried out, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ he was asking where God his Father was when he needed him most. Why was God so absent and so silent? Yet, even though to Jesus God seemed absent, God’s love for his Son as he hung from the cross was as strong as it had ever been. God’s love brought his Son through death to new life, the life of God. Even though to Mary and Martha Jesus was absent when their brother was dying, Jesus’ love for them and for Lazarus was as strong as it had always been. He went on to show his love for this family by going to their home, even though it would put his life in danger, and releasing Lazarus from the bonds of death. Even though the Lord may seem absent when we call upon him in prayer, especially in the face of death, his love for us and our loved one for whom we have been praying has in no sense diminished. The Lord may not answer our prayer in the way that we had hoped, but our prayer does not go unanswered, just as Jesus’ prayer on the cross did not ultimately go unanswered, and Mary and Martha’s prayer for their brother Lazarus did not go unanswered either.

The message of this morning’s gospel is that, although the Lord does not prevent death, even the death of those most precious to us, he is always at work bringing new life out of death. That is the promise he makes to Martha when he says, ‘if anyone believes in me, even though they die, they will live, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die’. Jesus does not promise to save those who believe in him from death – ‘even though they die’. He does promise, however, that those who respond to his offer of friendship, those who believe in him, will live beyond death, ‘even though they die, they will live’. They will not experience ultimate or final death, they ‘will never die’ in that sense. His love for us is stronger than death. He assures Martha and all of us that physical death will not break the bond that our faith creates with him. Our union with the Lord through faith is not severed by death. Having made this powerful promise to Martha, Jesus then asks her, ‘Do you believe this?’ The same question is asked of us all. It is a question that allows us to renew our faith in Jesus the resurrection and the life, whose life-giving love for us is stronger than death.

The risen Lord will not only deliver us from the experience of death that brings our earthly life to a close, he also works to deliver us from the various experiences of death that come our way in the midst of life. Whenever we indulge ourselves to the neglect of others, we end up less alive. Whenever we open ourselves up to the Spirit of the risen Lord, the Holy Spirit, and allow the Spirit to bear the fruit of love in our lives, we begin to live again. We pass from death to live. We strive to reach the end of our earthly lives as alive as possible, alive with the life of the Spirit. Then our passing over into eternal life will be seamless.

And/Or

(vi)Fifth Sunday of Lent

We have probably all had the experience of our prayers not being answered in the way we had hoped. We pray to the Lord on behalf of a loved one who is ill and they fail to recover. Perhaps that has been the experience of the families of loved ones who have recently died because of the coronavirus. We can feel abandoned by the Lord at such times. Our faith can be shaken when our heartfelt prayer goes unanswered, especially our prayer for seriously ill loved ones. This was the experience of Martha and Mary in today’s gospel reading. Jesus had a close friendship with this family of Mary, Martha and their brother, Lazarus. The gospel reading says that Jesus loved Martha, Mary and Lazarus. When Lazarus was seriously ill, it was natural for Martha and Mary to send for Jesus believing that he could heal their seriously ill brother. However, when Jesus received their message, he waited two whole days before travelling to Bethany, and by then Lazarus had died. The timing of Jesus didn’t make sense to Martha and Mary. Why did he delay? When Jesus finally arrived, both sisters said to him, ‘If you had been here, my brother would not have died’. It was as if they were saying to him, ‘Why didn’t you come earlier, when we sent for you? If you had, Lazarus might still be alive’. Not only was their friendship with Jesus being put to the test, but so also was their faith in him.

Jesus was asking Martha and Mary to be patient with his timing, with God’s timing. We can all struggle to understand God’s timing. Like Martha and Mary, we wonder why the Lord is not responding to our request for help with greater urgency. Like them, we find ourselves struggling with the Lord’s silence and absence in the face of sickness and death. God has befriended us deeply through the life, death and resurrection of his Son. Jesus says to us all what he said to his disciples in John’s gospel, ‘I no longer call you servants, I call you friends’. We are all included in his statement, ‘no one can have greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends’. The Lord has expressed his friendship for us by laying down his life for us, by rising from the dead for us, by sending his Spirit into our hearts. Yet, as with Martha and Mary, the dark, distressing experiences of life can sometimes cause us to doubt the reliability of the Lord’s friendship. Like those sisters, in times of crisis, such as we are experiencing today, we can find ourselves wondering where the Lord is. Understanding the Lord’s timing can be a challenge for believers in every generation.

Yet, Jesus’ delay, painful as it was for Martha and Mary, created a space for something more wonderful to happen than if he had responded immediately to their pleas for help. If Jesus had arrived before Lazarus died, he would have healed Lazarus and confirmed Martha and Mary’s belief in him as the one whose power could heal the sick. Because he delayed, Jesus could show that he had power not only over sickness but over death itself. That is why Jesus could say to his disciples before he left for Bethany, ‘for your sake I am glad I was not there because now you will believe’, now you will believe in me not just as the Life-giver for those who are ill but as the Life-giver even for those who have died. When Jesus reached Bethany and restored Lazarus to life, he was revealing himself to be the one who is more powerful than death. He was showing himself to be ‘the resurrection and the life’ and that was good news not just for this particular family, but for all those who would come to believe in him. Jesus’ delay allowed him to show the truly life-giving power of his friendship, not just in regard to this family in Bethany, but in regard to all who believe in him, the wider family of his disciples.

That is why this passage has continued to speak so powerfully to all believers down to this present day, especially in those times when, like Martha and Mary, we struggle to come to terms with the death of a loved one, and, perhaps, find themselves asking, as Martha and Mary did, ‘Where are you, Lord?’ The words of Jesus to Martha and Mary are addressed to us all, ‘I am the resurrection and the life, if anyone believes in me, even though they die, they will live and whoever lives and believes in me will never die’. Jesus is assuring us that the bond which our faith in him creates will not be broken by death. His friendship with us endures beyond the moment of physical death. If we are open to the gift of his friendship, even though we die, we will live, and, so, we will never die in the ultimate and final sense. Jesus’ mission is to bring life in its fullness, eternal life, to all, by offering his friendship to all, by drawing all into communion with himself. We will grieve the death of our loved ones, as Martha and Mary grieved the death of Lazarus, as Jesus himself wept, but because of our faith in Jesus, the Lord of life, there will always be hope at the heart of our grief, and we can face into our own death trusting in Jesus the resurrection and the life. If we can have hope in the face of death, we can have hope in the face of this deadly virus too. Jesus, our resurrection and our life, is with us in all his risen power in this crisis, as he was with the family of Martha, Mary and Lazarus in their moment of crisis. As Pope Francis concluded his reflection at the special Urbi et Orbi blessing from the Vatican last Friday, he said, ‘Lord, you ask us not to be afraid. Yet our faith is weak and we are fearful. But you, Lord, will not leave us at the mercy of the storm’.

Fr. Martin Hogan.