- 1st Reading – Ezekiel 37:12-14
- 2nd Reading – Romans 8:8-11
- Gospel – John 11:1-45
Just a couple of questions to begin with; First—does everyone take one of the Sunday bulletins that are passed out after Masses? Secondly, does everybody read it? There is a lot of important information in the bulletin about what is going on at St. Michael’s, but I would like to focus on the column on the front. If you had read the column on the front of last week’s bulletin, I explained, briefly, how the readings for these last few weeks of lent are chosen and put into the lectionary at this time of year. In this weekend’s bulletin, Fr. Jaime also expands wonderfully on the readings we’ve had these last couple of weeks. These readings are specifically chosen because they are so relatable to those who have been in the RCIA program for the past year. There are people in the Church all around the world who are in their final stages of preparation for being baptized or coming into full communion with the Church at Easter Vigil. Here at St. Michael’s, we have two people, Terilynn Girmscheid and Joshua Rambur who are in their final preparations. Last week’s Gospel we heard the story of the blind man having his sight restored by Jesus. Two weeks ago, we heard the story about the woman at the well. Both of these people went through a drawn-out faith journey and slowly came to believe that Jesus was the Messiah. Terilynn, Joshua, and all of the Elect around the world have also been on a long faith journey and have had their eyes opened to the true identity of Jesus.
Today’s readings take us even deeper on our faith journey; and not just the Elect, but all of us. The theme of today’s readings is resurrection. The readings lead us to think on a topic that has undoubtedly crossed the mind of every human being that has ever lived—–the question of life and death. What happens when we die? Where do we go, if we go anywhere? We live in a world that has been caught up in death for a long, long time. Countless people have been killed in wars, various acts of murder, euthanasia, executions, drunk driving, and the one thing that has killed more humans in recent years than all of these others put together——- abortion. It seems like death is all around us. So, it is something that we have to think about, and that each one of us will have to face. To non-believers the thought of death means the end; we just cease to exist, and the thought of resurrection for them conjures up horror stories of Hollywood zombies. But to Christians death is not the end, and resurrection is something miraculous. As followers of Jesus, we speak of resurrection gloriously. We proclaim it in our creed.
So, today’s readings and their theme of resurrection give us hope of life, ———-everlasting life. In our first reading from Ezekiel the prophet was speaking to the people of Israel about resurrection metaphorically. They had been scattered during the Babylonian exile and God was promising to bring them back to the land that he had promised them. In a sense, the prophet was speaking about the resurrection of hope as a people; a people who had died in the spirit and were brought back to faith in God as he restored their homes, their culture and their faith. And God makes this promise to them, “I will put my spirit in you that you may live.”
The same understanding of a spiritual as well as a physical resurrection is alluded to in our 2nd reading from St. Paul. St. Paul speaks of the Holy spirit that dwells in us that gives life to our mortal bodies and will allow them to live again as a consequence of Christ’s Resurrection.
In today’s Gospel, John recounts one of the most dramatic miracles of Jesus’ public ministry—–the raising of Lazarus from the dead. John goes to great lengths to make it clear that Jesus has the power to conquer death. Jesus is the resurrection and the life. He will put the spirit of God in us that we may live. But the difficult part is that, like Lazarus, we have to die first. To live forever we have to let Jesus live within us. We have to die to ourselves, to be able to let Jesus have control of our lives. We have to die to our old ways, or as what Paul called “the way of the flesh”. That’s what happens at our baptism; we die to ourselves and arise anew with Christ. That’s what Terilynn and Joshua will do at Easter Vigil. They will die to themselves and arise anew with Christ.
But dying to ourselves completely can be very difficult. We like to keep control of some parts of our lives. Some people think that if they come to Church on Sunday then the rest of the week belongs to them. They forget about God. We haven’t given ourselves over completely to Christ if we only think about him on weekends, or if we don’t seek his approval in all of our life’s decisions. The spirit of Christ isn’t with in us if we still hold a grudge against someone who has harmed us, if we’re unwilling to forgive, or if we harbor prejudices. We haven’t given ourselves over to Christ if we think, my money is my money because I earned it; or if we think abortion is OK—-sometimes, or that artificial birth control is OK. There are so many things that can keep us from accepting Christ completely into our lives. The biggest problem is that we are imperfect human beings. We are weak, and we do sin. That’s why our salvation is an ongoing event. It’s not a once-in-a-lifetime thing and we’re saved. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime and our journey begins. Every day we must recommit ourselves to Christ. That’s what we pray for at the beginning of Lent, and that’s what we do throughout Lent. Lent means spring, and in our physical lives it’s a time that we do a little spring cleaning around the house and around the yard. And so Lent is a time to do our spiritual spring cleaning as well. Through penance, fasting, and almsgiving we try to uncover those things that prevent Jesus from living fully within us. Every day we have to reaffirm our faith and surrender ourselves to Christ. Whenever we sin, we must ask for forgiveness, die to sin once again to arise with Christ once again. If we do that, a dramatic change will occur in our hearts and in our lives. That’s his promise of salvation, his promise of eternal life.
The last words of today’s Gospel say that those who saw this event came to believe. I think it’s safe to say that if anyone saw a person rise from the dead, they would quickly become a believer. And the truth is that miracles do happen every day. I know that I’ve seen many miracles in my life. And I’m sure that all of you have, we just need to recognize the power of God in our lives. We have to ask ourselves if we truly believe. Jesus said, “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? When we talk about the resurrection, do we speak with the awe and wonder that should accompany the greatest gift ever offered? We are entering the final days of our Lenten journey. The holiest of holy days are rushing upon us and we are challenged again, “Do we believe this?” Do we let Christ be in charge of our lives, and not just part of the time? Our actions must reflect our words, and the love of Christ must flow from us as it flowed to Lazarus whom Jesus called back to himself, just as he calls us.