Fifth Sunday of Lent

A natural cross near the lake
at Mt St Francis

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… 

Ezekiel, like all the prophets, pleads with the People of God to appreciate and try to fathom the intensity of God’s love for them. At that time he was addressing the Jews who had been transported to Babylon. Many were scattered also into Europe and Africa. They hoped for that day when they might return.  But as they settled into their new homes, inevitably adapting to new climates and cultures, and as they saw their loved ones die – old ones who remembered Jerusalem and children who had never seen it – they felt their hope slipping away. Their bright future it seemed had passed them by. But Ezekiel promised them hope beyond the grave. I will open your graves and have you rise from them!

Never give up hope! A veteran in the hospital bent my ear for a full hour on why he doesn’t believe anything the Church teaches. He said he can hardly wait for the Judgment Day when he will demand some explanations from God. “Why did all those people die in the earthquake and tsunami? Why didn’t my divorced parents reconcile and remarry? Why didn’t you answer my prayers?”

And when he concluded, as I was leaving, he said, “Father, keep the faith!” As angry as he is, he has never given up hope that the Church might be right, that his Catholic faith might be true.

Coming into our world, Jesus found us in that Veteran’s predicament and this Sunday’s gospel – the raising of Lazarus – describes his response. Martha and Mary had hoped Jesus would come and heal him before he died. Why had he dawdled? “If you had been here my brother would never have died!” Martha complained. There seemed nothing left to hope for.

When Jesus ordered them to roll away the stone, she thought he only wanted to go inside and kiss his friend’s dead face. But he should have been here during the funeral! It’s too late for that now. “Lord, he’s been dead four days! There’ll be a stench.” Martha could not imagine what Jesus would do.

The raising of Lazarus recalls the promises God made through Ezekiel many centuries earlier. It also reminds us of Jesus’ particular love for every Christian. It is a fulfillment of his own words, “Greater love than this no man has, than he lay down his life for his friend.”

The “friend” or “beloved” of Jesus is an important motif in the Fourth Gospel. That friend is you, the believer. You have followed him from the day the Baptist shouted, “There is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”

The closing verses of John 11 track the plot against Jesus. He signed his own death warrant as he raised Lazarus. The course of events is set from here on in as Jesus has pushed his opponents to the wall. They must believe in him or kill him. He will take up his cross and carry it to Calvary for Lazarus his friend, and for you his beloved.