V-Lent Ez 37:12-14; Rom 8:8-11; Jn 11:1-45 

In Roman poet Virgil’s work Aeneid, there is an account of an ancient king, who was so unnaturally cruel in his punishments that he used to chain a dead man to a living criminal. It was impossible for the poor wretch to separate himself from his disgusting burden. The carcass was bound fast to his body - its hands to his hands; its face to his face; the entire dead body to his living body.  Then he was put into a dungeon to die suffocated by the foul emissions of the stinking dead body. Many suppose that it was in reference to this that Paul cried out: "O wretched man that I am!" (Rom.7:24).  

We all are condemned to a death penalty like this, by virtue of our rejection of God. We all are tied to a dead body for our punishment. But in baptism that body is switched to the body of Christ, which was dead on the cross, but since he rose from the dead, and lives forever, we are not tied to a dead body any more, but a living body that keeps breathing life and salvation into every cell of our being. That is why we are called Christians, breathing Christ and living Christ.

In today’s reading Paul says: 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.

Resurrection hope is the central theme of the Scripture readings for the Fifth Sunday of Lent. For Ezekiel, in the first reading, it was always God’s intention to raise his people from their graves. We could take this to mean that it is simply God’s nature to raise the dead because God is the life-giver. Ezekiel speaks of the Lord putting his life giving spirit within us – echoing the book of Genesis, where God breathed into the nostrils of clay man. For John, in today’s Gospel, the raising of Lazarus is the final and greatest sign of Jesus, a symbolic narrative of His victory over death at the cost of His own life and a sign anticipating His Resurrection.

According to John, the raising of Lazarus is the sixth of seven signs ( the seventh is his own resurrection). It is also the last and greatest of the miracles worked by our Lord to prove that He is the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God, and that through faith in Him believers will receive eternal life.  In other words, Jesus wanted to make this, His last recorded miracle, a convincing proof of His claim to be what He was-the Messiah, sent by God to give new life,  eternal life, to mankind.

While the miracle of raising Lazarus from grave shows Jesus’ divine power over death itself, it also shows Him as a wonderfully sensitive human being.  His love for Lazarus and his sisters is palpable.  Martha's and Mary's complaint that Jesus' presence would have averted Lazarus’ death shows us how real their friendship was.  So do Jesus' tears. He feels the pain of Mary and Martha. He feels the anguish that death brings. The two words “Jesus wept” shows that Jesus  was not only the Son of God, but also the Son of Man, fully human, sharing our grief and our sorrow and comforting us with His declaration, “Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.”  

Today he weeps with each of us and feels the pain and anguish that we feel. He knows our needs and our struggles too. Without any need for a messenger, in his divine knowledge Jesus knew when Lazarus had died. So does he know ours too.

St John points out that "Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus." And yet, in spite of his love, Jesus doesn't rush back to Jerusalem to heal Lazarus. Nor does he heal him from a distance, as he did with the Centurion's servant. Jesus loves these friends, and yet he lets them suffer. He lets them experience their helplessness and weakness, the painful separation of death and the loss of a loved one.

Did he do it to punish them? Did he do it because he had no power to remedy the evil? 

No, he let them suffer precisely because he loved them. If God protected us from all suffering, we would make the mistake of thinking that earth is heaven, that we could make ourselves truly happy just by our own efforts. And God allows us to experience  suffering as a way to remind us that life on earth is a journey towards heaven - it's the path, not the goal. The goal is heaven, and the resurrection of Lazarus is an appetizer of heaven. Lazarus died again. The tradition says that the Jews put Lazarus and his sisters in a leaky boat and sailed them away, aiming to drown them. But they reached safe in Cyprus and Lazarus became the bishop there for 30 years and was martyred.

What matters in life is not being perfectly comfortable: what matters in life is knowing, loving, and following Jesus Christ. Our sufferings are therefore a proof that God never gives up on us - they are sometimes a last resort to get our attention.

The messengers from Martha and Mary arrive tired and breathless and deliver their one-sentence message, composed by Martha and Mary: "Lord, the man you love is ill." They could have said, "Lord, the one who loves you is ill," as if because Lazarus loved Jesus, he deserved to be healed. But who loved more, Lazarus or Jesus? Jesus loved him infinitely more than he could ever love Christ! They could have said, “ Lord, come and heal Lazarus, who is ill." But that would have dictated what Jesus should do. And they wanted to leave it up to Jesus to decide himself, knowing that his love would do much, much more than they could ever think of - and they were right. Christ's heart could not resist a prayer like that and he unleashed his power and procures the greatest miracle of his ministry.

When we go through struggle, how do we make our prayers to him ? Do we just dictate to him to come and help us; or do we have the courage and conviction to tell him, the one you love is in trouble ?

Jesus asked the people to “Roll away the stone, unbind him and let him go.”  There are so many dark areas in our private life that we often bind ourselves with. We bind ourselves with the chains of slander, gossip, envy, prejudices, hatred, anger; and bury ourselves in the tombs of despair. As he said to Lazarus to come out, he is calling us out of the tomb.

During the season of Lent we are called to bring ourselves to confessional where we can unbind our chains and be freed from the fetters and tombs.

    When we receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation, Jesus will call our name and command, "Come out!”  Am I ready to come out ?