HOMILY FOR THE 5TH SUNDAY OF LENT YEAR A.
Jesus wept over the death of Lazarus
OUTLINE
1. Summary of ideas of the 5th Sunday of Lent year A readings
2. Jesus wept over the death of his friend Lazarus
3. Jesus tells each one of us. “Come out!” Let us come out from the tomb of sin we have built for ourselves and take away the stones in our soul and heed his call.
With the commemoration of the Lord’s Passion, Death and Resurrection fast approaching, today’s Sunday opening prayer reminds us that it was love that moved the Son to surrender to death for the salvation of the world.
“By your help, we beseech you, Lord our God, may we walk eagerly in that same charity with which, out of love for the world, your Son handed himself over to death.”
Opening prayer, 5th Sunday of Lent.
1. Summary of ideas of the 5th Sunday of Lent year A readings
Having that said, God assures us in the 1st reading (Ezechiel 37:12–14), that we will participate in the Resurrection of His Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, who will be given to us and with whom we will overcome death by resurrecting us so that we may participate in his Resurrection:
- “O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them,…I will put my spirit in you that you may live, and I will settle you upon your land; thus you shall know that I am the Lord. I have promised, and I will do it, says the Lord (Ez 37: 12;14).”
- In the 2nd reading, St. Paul assures us: If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit dwelling in you.
- And finally, Jesus Himself, upon carrying out the miracle of raising his beloved friend Lazarus, brother of Martha and Mary, and thereby showing to us that HE IS TRULY THE SON OF GOD, revealed to us in today’s Gospel saying:
“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?”
- Martha’s reply to Jesus’ question was: “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.” And our reply as Christians should be a resounding yes.
- With the present turmoils we are experiencing in our world, we are reminded to forego what is not really important in this life and cling to what is truly essential, what really matters in this life and the next. And what is this? To believe in Christ, to trust in Him. To live our lives in Christ, to die in Christ, so as to live with Him again forever.
- THE QUESTION IS: DO WE LIVE OUR LIFE IN CHRIST? WHAT PLACE DOES JESUS OCCUPY IN MY LIFE? THAT IS A QUESTION FOR YOU TO ANSWER MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS
2. Jesus wept over the death of his friend Lazarus.
IN TODAY’S GOSPEL, WE CONTEMPLATE A VERY MOVING SCENE: JESUS WEPT OVER THE DEATH OF LAZARUS. He had a great human heart, full of love and tenderness. Far from being indifferent with the sufferings of those who suffer JESUS SHOWS TO US THAT HE REALLY CARES.
- He did not hesitate to shed his tears AND EXPRESS HIS SORROW over the death of Lazarus such that the Jews who saw you weep, said: “See, how he loved him!”
- My brethren, if Jesus wept for his friend Lazarus, we can say that WE ARE MORE THAN JUST FRIENDS TO JESUS. Through Baptism, we have become God’s children in Christ. We are His brothers and sisters and He loves us perhaps more than He loved Lazarus.
- Isn’t it true that the greater the love one has for someone, the greater the pain, the grief is when the beloved is no longer present, when the beloved dies?
- The physical death of his friend moved Jesus to tears, but WHAT WOULD HE FEEL OVER THE SPIRITUAL DEATH OF A SINNER who has brought about his eternal condemnation burying himself in the dark tomb of his sins and pride?
- “Christ wept: let man also weep for himself. For why did Christ weep, but to teach men to weep” (St Augustine, In Ioann. Evang., 49, 19). Our Lord said to Martha: “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.” We also should weep — but for our sins, to help us return to the life of grace through conversion and repentance FOR GOD’S GLORY AND FOR THE GOOD OF OUR SOUL.
- And if we weep for our sins, through repentance, conversion and confession, OUR LORD WILL RAISE US UP, A SPIRITUAL RESURRECTION occurs in us: we recover God and his grace. Hence, we should never lose heart; NO MATTER HOW GREAT AND MANY ARE OUR SINS, GOD’S MERCY IS FAR MUCH GREATER for God indeed is kind and merciful AS LONG AS WE HUMBLE OURSELVES.
- Isn’t it true that the greater the love one has for someone, the greater the pain, the grief is when the beloved is no longer present, when the beloved dies?
- LAZARUS’ RESURRECTION IS A PROOF OF GOD’S DIVINITY AND ALSO A SIGN OF OUR FUTURE RESURRECTION. IF WE LIVE AND DIE IN CHRIST, WE WILL RETURN TO LIFE. We shall hear Jesus’ voice calling us by our name as he told Lazarus: Lazarus, come out!’
3. Jesus tells each one of us. “Come out!” Let us come out from the tomb of sin we have built for ourselves and take away the stones in our soul and heed his call.
To each one of us Jesus says: COME OUT! COME OUT FROM YOUR TOMB OF SIN. Believe in me, trust in me, abandon the life and works of the flesh and of sin which do not really make you happy, but begin again to live in Spirit for whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. With this word of the Lord we believe that the life of whoever believes in Jesus and follows his Commandment after death will be transformed into new life, full and immortal. As Jesus is resurrected with his own body, though he does not return to an earthly life, so too will we be raised with our bodies which will have been transfigured into glorified bodies.
In his uplifting and inspiring address on April 4, 2014, Pope Francis said:
- “Christ does not resign himself to the tombs that we have built for ourselves with our choice for evil and death, with our errors, with our sins. He is not resigned to this! He invites us, almost orders us, to come out of the tomb in which our sins have buried us. He calls us insistently to come out of the darkness of that prison in which we are enclosed, content with a false, selfish and mediocre life. “Come out!”, he says to us, “Come out!”. It is an invitation to true freedom, to allow ourselves to be seized by these words of Jesus who repeats them to each one of us today. It is an invitation to let ourselves be freed from the “bandages”, from the bandages of pride. For pride makes of us slaves, slaves to ourselves, slaves to so many idols, so many things. Our resurrection begins here: when we decide to obey Jesus’ command by coming out into the light, into life; when the mask falls from our face — we are frequently masked by sin, the mask must fall off! — and we find again the courage of our original face, created in the image and likeness of God.“
My brethren, this is our hope: IF GOD IS WITH US, AND WE ARE WITH GOD, WHO IS AGAINST US. NOTHING COULD SEPARATE US FROM GOD’S LOVE, NOT EVEN THE WORST PROBLEMS WE COULD IMAGINE FOR Jesus Christ, our Lord, our friend, is the Resurrection and Life. He who calls us by our name and is determined to free us from the tomb in which we have buried ourselves with our sins and our pride. Let us then come out from the tombs which we have built for ourselves to RETURN TO AND FOLLOW Him. For if we do, WE SHALL ALSO SHARE THE SAME DESTINY AS HIS.
Lord, thank you for caring for us. We need you, for without you, our life would be meaningless, we are in the dark, in the void. May we remove what is accidental in our lives and CLING TO what is essential: return to you, live and die in you, for then we shall rise in you. As you have promised: whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.
Let us then live in, for and with Christ, and die with Him as well for
“if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. For we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him (Rm 6:8-9).”
Let us also give death to the old carnal man within us, giving death to sin, and allow the Holy Spirit to transform us in “other Christs,” for only then, living a life in Spirit, when the final judgment comes, shall we hear Christ calling us from our graves: “Come out!” And we shall have the same fate as that of Christ:
“If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit dwelling in you (Rm 8:11).”
A Blessed Sunday and week ahead! Fr. Rolly Arjonillo
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