Word to the Wise
Sunday, April 2, 2017 - 5th Sunday of Lent - A
[Ezek 37:12-14; Rom 8:8-11; John 11:1-45 or 11:3-7, 17, 20-27, 33b-45,47]SUNDAY, APRIL 2, 2017 FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT [Ezekiel 37:12-14; Romans 8:8-11; John 11:1-45] Jesus said to [Martha], "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 Messiah, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world." [John] Of all his signs in the Gospel According to John, Jesus' raising of Lazarus has to be the most dramatic. Yet, the importance of the sign is to point to the words exchanged between him and Martha, Lazarus' sister. Human death has no hold on Jesus even if he was to experience it. He is the source of all life and would give life back to Lazarus. In the process we learn that resurrection is not simply a future event but a present reality for the one who believes that Jesus is "the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world." This sets the stage for all of the Sacred Triduum and Easter Sunday. In the Gospel According to John, death becomes "relativized" because it is subject to faith that joins us to Jesus in earthly life as well as eternity. Death is not the final word on life, but an important event in life. We can stand with Martha today and profess our faith. Jesus promises us that if we believe, we will experience eternal life in him. God gives us new life through faith and will continue to give us this life. Lazarus is not a figure of the past but every one of us. AMEN