Fr. Bob's Reflection for the Fifth Sunday in Lent

Fifth Sunday of Lent Have you ever been in a hospital waiting room – waiting for news? Hoping for a miracle, praying your heart out? Making promises to God? “Let my loved one get well. Bring them through this operation, and I promise I will do this or that.” Then the doctor comes out and you know right away by the look on his face that it is bad news. And perhaps for a while you feel God has let you down. We feel like Martha in today’s Gospel. She is mad at Jesus. It sounds polite in the story: “If You had been here, my brother would never have died.” In reality, she is very upset. He had healed so many, a hundred others that He didn’t even know. And now, when His best friend needs Him, He is out of town. Against all expectations, He delays two days/ Some of the grieving Jews are not particularly impressed by Jesus’ tears. Could not He, who opened the eyes of the blind man, have kept this man from dying? But Jesus’ love for Lazarus goes beyond what His sister had been silently asking: “Do not let him die.” Listen again to the dialogue with Martha and Jesus: “You brother will rise again, Martha. I know he will rise again, in the resurrection on the last day.” Whoever lives and believes in Him will never die. In other words, eternal death is not separation of soul from the body, but separation of the soul from God. This is so important that Jesus asks her, “Do you believe this?” I wonder if she paused before she said yes. Then Jesus does the unexpected. He orders that the stone be rolled away from the tomb. Then he calls out loudly for Lazarus to come out. Picture the scene: hundreds of people standing around, straining to see what he is going to do. The silence was deafening. You could have heard a pin drop. The voice of Jesus rang out through those hills, and to the shock and dismay of all, Lazarus appears out of the darkness of the tomb, and Jesus orders that he be untied and set free. This was probably one of the greatest miracles of Jesus – and probably the one that sealed His fate. The raising of Lazarus was the crucial moment in the plot to kill Jesus. The popularity of Jesus reached a critical level after this miracle. And thus, the level of threat to the status quo leadership was overwhelming. From this point on, they plot openly against Him. Ironically, it would be the act of restoring a friend to life. That would set in motion the events that led to Jesus’ death. It could be said that as Jesus stood before the tomb, He called Lazarus out so that He could go in. He was changing places with Lazarus. There are many lessons to be taken from this Gospel, but perhaps it all comes down to how you answer the question Jesus poses to Martha: “I am the Resurrection and the Life. Whoever is alive and believes in Me will never die.” I leave you with the same question. Do you believe this? Do you believe this? Fr. Bob Warren, SA Yours in Christ, Father Bob Warren, S.A. Signature Fr. Bob Warren, SA