Sunday 17 March
2013
Readings at Mass
5th Sunday of Lent A
Ezekiel 37:12-14. Psalm 129:Rv.7. Romans 8:8-11. John
11:1-45
You will know that I am the Lord when I open your graves.
My soul is waiting for the Lord, more than watchman for
daybreak.
If the Spirit
lives in you then he, who raised Jesus, will give life to your bodies.
I am the
resurrection and the life.
First reading
Ezekiel
37:12-14
The Lord says this: I am now going to
open your graves; I mean to raise you from your graves, my people, and lead you
back to the soil of Israel. And you will know that I am the Lord, when I open
your graves and raise you from your graves, my people. And I shall put my
spirit in you, and you will live, and I shall resettle you on your own soil;
and you will know that I, the Lord, have said and done this – it is the
Lord who speaks.
Of ourselves we are incapable of anything beyond this life. It is only if we have the Spirit of God in us that we will be able to live forever beyond this life. However, God in his love offers his spirit to everyone who welcomes him.
____________________
Psalm
Psalm
129:1-8
With the Lord there is mercy and fullness
of redemption.
Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord,
Lord, hear my voice!
O let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my pleading.
With the Lord there is mercy and
fullness of redemption.
If you, O Lord, should mark our guilt,
Lord, who would survive?
But with you is found forgiveness:
for this we revere you.
With the Lord there is mercy and
fullness of redemption.
My soul is waiting for the Lord.
I count on his word.
My soul is longing for the Lord
more than watchman for daybreak.
(Let the watchman count on daybreak
and Israel on the Lord.)
With the Lord there is mercy and
fullness of redemption.
Because with the Lord there is mercy
and fullness of redemption,
Israel indeed he will redeem
from all its iniquity.
With the Lord there is mercy and
fullness of redemption.
____________________
Second reading
Romans
8:8-11
People who are interested only in
unspiritual things can never be pleasing to God. Your interests, however, are
not in the unspiritual, but in the spiritual, since the Spirit of God has made
his home in you. In fact, unless you possessed the Spirit of Christ you would
not belong to him. Though your body may be dead it is because of sin, but if
Christ is in you then your spirit is life itself because you have been
justified; and if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in
you, then he who raised Jesus from the dead will give life to your own mortal
bodies through his Spirit living in you.
The Spirit raised Jesus to the new life of the Resurrection. If they Spirit ;lives in us he will do the same for us. We will become by gracew what Jesus is by nature and his Passion.
Gospel
Acclamation
Jn11:25,
26
Glory and praise to you, O Christ!
I am the resurrection and the life, says
the Lord;
whoever believes in me will never die.
Glory and praise to you, O Christ!
Gospel
John
11:1-45
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
stumbling
because 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.
Death or life?
Death is the
ultimate enemy. It puts an end to everything. Let a man be king or president,
terrorist or thief, death will destroy him. No one escapes. Our bodies are weak
even when strong. Sickness, paralysis, decrepitude, and loss of mental power
are just some of the precursors of death. It looks hopeless. However, Jesus is
Lord and he is Saviour too. He saves from death, the death you and I must
undergo, the death our loved ones have undergone. He constantly spoke of life.
He promised ‘the light of life’, ‘to give life to whomever he wishes’. He
declared, ‘I have come that you may have abundant life’. ‘God sent his Son so
that those who believe in him may have eternal life’.
Today’s Gospel
proclaims that Jesus conquers death and gives life. The family of Martha, Mary,
and Lazarus are close friends. Jesus loved them (v.5). Strange that he did not
rush to save his friend but waited two more days. We cannot put God into our
categories. By the time he arrived, Lazarus had been dead four days. The enemy
was truly entrenched. However, Jesus had said, “The dead will hear the voice of
the Son of God and those who hear will live” (5:28). Death itself cannot resist
his Word.
When Jesus arrives,
Martha goes out to meet him. She is symbolic of most of us. She believes but
something is lacking in her faith. Like the Jews of her time, she believes in a
general resurrection ‘on the last day’. It does not touch her. She does not
understand who Jesus is and how he saves. He tells her ‘I am the resurrection and the life’. Those who are close to
Jesus do not taste death but enjoy life in abundance. Jesus does not talk of
‘the last day’. He talks of the present: whoever believes has eternal
life’ (6:47).
Mary on the
contrary when told Jesus is there rises immediately and rushes to him. She
recognizes him as Lord and kneels at his feet. She is the one who listens to
his words.
Jesus deeply
moved, groans in his spirit and weeps. He is part of our human situation but he
intends to transform it. He will change weeping into joy – for all who come to
him like Mary.
Jesus offers so much to those who will
believe in him. From our viewpoint, we see one small corner of the tapestry of
existence. We have no idea of what Jesus will do. With a word, he called forth
Lazarus, dead for four days. He will do far greater things for those who
believe in him.
Do you know Jesus as Mary, sister of Martha, knew him?
Have you experienced ‘eternal life’ in you now?
Do you know Jesus as friend?
Father, you loved us and sent
Jesus to give eternal life. May we believe so that this life may flower before
you.
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