Fifth Sunday of Lent

Lectionary: 34

"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...."


Jesus' calling his friend and disciple Lazarus out of the grave is the greatest and last of the "signs" in the Gospel of Saint John. We have seen several less spectacular signs like his changing water to wine, his preternatural knowledge of the woman at the well, and his feeding several thousand in the wilderness.
Scholars refer to these incidents as "signs" rather than "miracles" because they invariably reveal something more. They are not simply wonderful incidents to demonstrate the Savior's authority. Rather, at Cana he shows he is the bridegroom of the church; he shows himself as the Messiah to the Samaritans; and in the wilderness he feeds us with his body and blood. At Bethany, Jesus calls his friend Lazarus by name; and each one of us on the final day. On that day, when you hear the voice of the Shepherd, "...you shall know that I am the Lord."

The fatalist regards death as unfortunate and inevitable. It is the final annihilation of all personal effort. Whatever I have gained, earned, learned, or become is erased by death. 
Christians see death as the gateway to eternal life. We regard it with confident hope, and we prepare by the practice of our faith. Just as an aspiring athlete practices for the big leagues, and a doctor practices medicine with an eye to continual learning and improvement, the Christian practices the art of dying well. We do not want to be caught unawares by its approach, whether it comes at the end of a long and satisfactory life, or suddenly and without warning. 
Jesus has urged us to practice for death with statements like, 

Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Mt 10:37-39

We practice our faith first by daily prayer. My "tour of duty" in the VA begins at 7:30am, but I arrive there shortly after 6:30, so as to spend time in the chapel with the Lord and his saints. I begin with Saint Francis's Little Office of the Passion, and then read the Liturgy of the Hours. I often spend a little more time with spiritual reading, currently Adrienne Von Speyr's Handmaid of the Lord. I don't know how I'd get through the day without that daily practice. 
Fortified by prayer, we're ready to deal with whatever comes at us through the day. I'm sure everyone has a plan for the day, and most of our plans are disrupted, changed, and redirected by the exigencies of the day. The practice of dying often begins with surrendering my plans. 
But it is impossible to describe with more precision how we practice our faith. On one day I should be more disciplined, focused, and resolute; on another day, less so. Do we work or play, laugh or weep, speak or remain silent, encourage or discourage? Each decision is directed by the Spirit of God as I surrender my own plans.
I like to remember the "impulsiveness" of Saint Francis. He prayed continually and asked the Lord to show him which way to go. Once, when he and Brother Mattias came to a crossroad they didn't know which way to take. Francis asked the older, former aristocrat to spin around like a child until he fell down. Whichever way he would fall, that's the way they went. 
The obedient friar, despite the dignity of his years and breeding, whirled around until he tripped and fell; and they set out in that direction. As it turned out, they came to a village that was very near to civil war. Francis heard the complaints of the villagers, prayed with them, met the bishop, the mayor, and other parties, and finally mediated a truce. 
A few hours later, and many miles away, Francis discovered his friend was still sore about the indignity of falling down on the road. He reminded Matthias of the miracle they'd witnessed in resolving the conflict. The incidents were not unrelated, though Matt had not seen it! Finally, they laughed about God's mercy. Through Matt's death to self a town had been spared dreadful violence. 
Rarely can we see all the consequences of our decisions. We just don't know how God is working out our salvation. But we pray daily, and ask for God's guidance, and then pay whatever price must be paid today. We prepare for the Big Day when we will surrender everything to the One who call us, easily, without hesitation or regret.