Fifth Sunday of Lent
Today's Readings
First Reading: Ezekiel 37:12-14
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 130
Second Reading: Romans 8:8-11
Gospel: John 11:1-45
Read today's readings at USCCBReflection
Lazarus has been dead four days. The stone is in place. The mourners have come. Martha meets Jesus on the road and says the words every grieving person knows: Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
Jesus does not explain his delay. He says: I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live. Then the question: do you believe this?
Martha answers with one of the great confessions in Scripture: yes, Lord. I believe you are the Christ, the Son of God.
At the tomb, Jesus weeps. He who is about to raise the dead is moved to tears by death's reality. He does not minimize grief. He does not say "don't cry, I'll fix it." He enters the grief fully, and then he acts.
Take away the stone, he says. Martha objects: Lord, by now there will be a stench. Four days. It's too late.
Jesus says: did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?
The stone is removed. Jesus prays. Then he cries out in a loud voice: Lazarus, come out!
The dead man walks out, wrapped in burial bands. Jesus says to the community: untie him and let him go.
Ezekiel's promise echoes: I will open your graves and have you rise from them. I will put my spirit in you that you may live. Paul completes the circuit: if the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he will give life to your mortal bodies also.
In the evening of life, this Gospel is not abstract. You have stood at tombs. You have said Martha's prayer: Lord, if you had been here. You have known the stench of death - not metaphorically, but actually. Friends have died. Spouses have died. Perhaps children have died. And you have wondered: where were you?
Jesus' answer is not an explanation. It is a declaration: I am the resurrection and the life. Not "I offer" or "I provide." I am. The resurrection is not a doctrine. It is a person. And that person is standing at the mouth of every tomb you've ever sealed shut, calling by name what you thought was dead forever.
The psalm is the De Profundis: out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord. More than sentinels wait for the dawn, let Israel wait for the Lord. You have been waiting. The dawn is one week away.
The Rosary Today
The Glorious Mysteries - In the Resurrection, Jesus himself came out of the tomb. Tonight, pray one decade for all who are waiting at tombs - waiting for the dawn, waiting for life to return, waiting for the voice that calls the dead by name.
Prayer of the Faithful
For the Church, and especially the elect who undergo the Third Scrutiny today: that the God who opens graves would open every dead place in their lives and fill them with his Spirit. We pray to the Lord.
For those who grieve - who stand at tombs and say "if you had been here": that Jesus would meet them on the road, weep with them, and speak the word that raises the dead. We pray to the Lord.
For those in the evening of life who have lost hope that anything dead can live again: that the voice of Christ would reach them in their sealed tombs and command them to come out. We pray to the Lord.
For the faithful departed - that the God who called Lazarus from the grave would call them by name to the resurrection of life. We pray to the Lord.
Something to Do
Pray the De Profundis (Psalm 130) tonight. Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord. Let every line be personal. If you mark iniquities, who can stand? But with you is forgiveness. With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.
“With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.”
— Psalm 130:7