He is the resurrection and the life

Fifth Sunday of Lent Yr A

Collect

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. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

First Reading
Ez 37:12-14

I will put my spirit in you that you may live.

A reading from the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel

Thus says the Lord GOD:
O my people, I will open your graves
   and have you rise from them,
   and bring you back to the land of Israel.
Then you shall know that I am the LORD,
   when I open your graves and have you rise from them,
   O my people!
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.

The word of the Lord.

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 130:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8

R. :

℟. (7) With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.

Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD;
   LORD, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
   to my voice in supplication.

℟. With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.

If you, O LORD, mark iniquities,
   LORD, who can stand?
But with you is forgiveness,
   that you may be revered.

℟. With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.

I trust in the LORD;
   my soul trusts in his word.
More than sentinels wait for the dawn,
   let Israel wait for the LORD.

℟. With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.

For with the LORD is kindness
   and with him is plenteous redemption;
And he will redeem Israel
   from all their iniquities.

℟. With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.

Second Reading
Rom 8:8-11

The Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you.

A reading from the Letter of Saint Paul to the Romans

Brothers and sisters:
Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
But you are not in the flesh;
   on the contrary, you are in the spirit,
   if only the Spirit of God dwells in you.
Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
But if Christ is in you,
   although the body is dead because of sin,
   the spirit is alive because of righteousness.
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.

The word of the Lord.

Acclamation before the Gospel
Jn 11:25a, 26

I am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord
whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will never die.

Gospel
Jn 11:1-45 or 11:3-7, 17, 20-27, 33b-45

I am the resurrection and the life.

✠ A reading from the holy Gospel according to John

Now a man was ill, Lazarus from Bethany,
   the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
Mary was the one who had anointed the Lord with perfumed oil
   and dried his feet with her hair;
   it was her brother Lazarus who was ill.
So the sisters sent word to him saying,
   “Master, the one you love is ill.”
When Jesus heard this he said,
   “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.”
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
So when he heard that he was ill,
   he remained for two days in the place where he was.
Then after this he said to his disciples,
   “Let us go back to Judea.”
The disciples said to him,
   “Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you,
   and you want to go back there?”
Jesus answered,
   “Are there not twelve hours in a day?
If one walks during the day, he does not stumble,
   because he sees the light of this world.
But if one walks at night, he stumbles,
   because the light is not in him.”
He said this, and then told them,
   “Our friend Lazarus is asleep,
   but I am going to awaken him.”
So the disciples said to him,
   “Master, if he is asleep, he will be saved.”
But Jesus was talking about his death,
   while they thought that he meant ordinary sleep.
So then Jesus said to them clearly,
   “Lazarus has died.
And I am glad for you that I was not there,
   that you may believe.
Let us go to him.”
So Thomas, called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples,
   “Let us also go to die with him.”

When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus
   had already been in the tomb for four days.
Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, only about two miles away.
And many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary
   to comfort them about their brother.
When Martha heard that Jesus was coming,
   she went to meet him;
   but Mary sat at home.
Martha said to Jesus,
   “Lord, if you had been here,
   my brother would not have died.
But even now I know that whatever you ask of God,
   God will give you.”
Jesus said to her,
   “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 Christ, the Son of God,
   the one who is coming into the world.”

When she had said this,
   she went and called her sister Mary secretly, saying,
   “The teacher is here and is asking for you.”
As soon as she heard this,
   she rose quickly and went to him.
For Jesus had not yet come into the village,
   but was still where Martha had met him.
So when the Jews who were with her in the house comforting her
   saw Mary get up quickly and go out,
   they followed her,
   presuming that she was going to the tomb to weep there.
When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him,
   she fell at his feet and said to him,
   “Lord, if you had been here,
   my brother would not have died.”
When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping,
   he became perturbed and deeply troubled, and said,
   “Where have you laid him?”
They said to him, “Sir, come and see.”
And Jesus wept.
So the Jews said, “See how he loved him.”
But some of them said,
   “Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man
   have done something so that this man would not have died?”

So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb.
It was a cave, and a stone lay across it.
Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”
Martha, the dead man’s sister, said to him,
   “Lord, by now there will be a stench;
   he has been dead for four days.”
Jesus said to her,
   “Did I not tell you that if you believe
   you will see the glory of God?”
So they took away the stone.
And Jesus raised his eyes and said,
   “Father, I thank you for hearing me.
I know that you always hear me;
   but because of the crowd here I have said this,
   that they may believe that you sent me.”
And when he had said this,
   he cried out in a loud voice,
   “Lazarus, come out!”
The dead man came out,
   tied hand and foot with burial bands,
   and his face was wrapped in a cloth.
So Jesus said to them,
   “Untie him and let him go.”

Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary
   and seen what he had done began to believe in him.

Or: [Shorter Form]

The sisters of Lazarus sent word to Jesus, saying,
   “Master, the one you love is ill.”
When Jesus heard this he said,
   “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.”
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
So when he heard that he was ill,
   he remained for two days in the place where he was.
Then after this he said to his disciples,
   “Let us go back to Judea.”

When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus
   had already been in the tomb for four days.
When Martha heard that Jesus was coming,
   she went to meet him;
   but Mary sat at home.
Martha said to Jesus,
   “Lord, if you had been here,
   my brother would not have died.
But even now I know that whatever you ask of God,
   God will give you.”
Jesus said to her,
   “Your brother will rise.”
Martha said,
   “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 Christ, the Son of God,
   the one who is coming into the world.”

He became perturbed and deeply troubled, and said,
   “Where have you laid him?”
They said to him, “Sir, come and see.”
And Jesus wept.
So the Jews said, “See how he loved him.”
But some of them said,
   “Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man
   have done something so that this man would not have died?”

So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb.
It was a cave, and a stone lay across it.
Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”
Martha, the dead man’s sister, said to him,
   “Lord, by now there will be a stench;
   he has been dead for four days.”
Jesus said to her,
   “Did I not tell you that if you believe
   you will see the glory of God?”
So they took away the stone.
And Jesus raised his eyes and said,
   “Father, I thank you for hearing me.
I know that you always hear me;
   but because of the crowd here I have said this,
   that they may believe that you sent me.”
And when he had said this,
   he cried out in a loud voice,
   “Lazarus, come out!”
The dead man came out,
   tied hand and foot with burial bands,
   and his face was wrapped in a cloth.
So Jesus said to them,
   “Untie him and let him go.”

Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary
   and seen what he had done began to believe in him.

At the end of the Gospel, the Deacon, or the Priest, acclaims:

The Gospel of the Lord.

All reply:

Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

Reflection

On this Fifth Sunday of Lent, the Liturgy of the Word invites us to recognise Jesus as the one who is eternal Life. The themes of life and death are very strong in the Gospel passage in which John recounts the raising of Lazarus.

The account opens with the news that Lazarus of Bethany, the brother of Martha and Mary and a friend of Jesus, was ill. Yet, when Martha sends word asking Jesus to go and visit Lazarus, Jesus seems to do nothing, saying that this illness will not end in death but has occurred so that God may be glorified. Nevertheless, after two days Jesus tells his disciples to go from Galilee to Judea, the place where he would later be betrayed, scourged and crucified. Since the disciples knew the danger that Judea represented for Jesus, they tried to persuade him not to go there. But Jesus once again presents himself as the light of life, in contrast to the darkness of those who were seeking to kill him.

John tells us that, when Jesus arrived, Lazarus had already been dead for four days. In Jewish understanding, the fourth day meant that something was final. Lazarus was truly dead, and so the “sign” of his resurrection by Jesus becomes even more powerful. Like the other signs—or miracles—that we find in John’s Gospel, their purpose was that those who witnessed them might grow in faith in Jesus as the Son of God.

This passage also serves as the theme for the third and final scrutiny of those chosen to be baptised at the Easter Vigil. In the two previous scrutinies, Jesus was presented as the Water of Life that quenches every thirst (in the account of the Samaritan woman) and as the Light that never fades and through whom we come to know the Father (in the account of the man born blind). Today, Jesus presents himself not only as the one who gives us life, but as the one who himself is eternal Life.

There are certain elements in common between this passage and the two others read on the previous Sundays. In this passage, the protagonist is Martha. After moments in which, like the Samaritan woman and the man born blind, she showed a lack of faith in Jesus, she—like them—made a profession of faith and recognised Jesus as “the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who has come into the world.” After this declaration, she realised she could not keep it to herself, and so she ran to call her sister so that she too might come to Jesus.

This passage goes beyond the raising of Lazarus, who, after all, would later experience death again. The true meaning of this event is to present Jesus as eternal Life. Faith in Jesus takes us beyond the physical life we are living and draws us into a far higher reality. “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” Do we believe this?

Prayer

Lord, do not let the power of death hold us back, but, through our faith in you, may we share in the victory of your Resurrection. Amen.

 

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