Fifth Sunday of Lent A
April 10, 2011
Reading I: Ezekiel 37:12-14
Responsorial Psalm: 130:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8
Reading II: Romans 8:8-11
Gospel: John 11:1-45 or 11:3-7, 17, 20-27, 33b-45
Questioning the gospel according to John is not a matter of rational analysis. We are given no lead into the curious question of resuscitation of a body four days dead. The matter is not significant. This episode is one of the seven signs Jesus gave as he approached his passover. Again in this instance we can best allow the gospel passage to lead us in contemplation as we read it slowly through... and through... It seems that the writer has woven his tapestry with an eye to leading us in and out of the picture along many different threads.
We are struck by the depth of feeling, the humanness portrayed in each of the persons. One way to contemplate this sign could well be to identify with those feelings: friendship, love, sorrow, loss, death...
What is significant in this sign? Jesus says it is ‘for the glory of God’ and ‘so that you might believe’. To ‘believe’ is not about saying Yes to some formula of words, but it is accepting Jesus and what he is about. Faith (fides in Latin) is linked to trust: confidence. If you believe in a person you confide in her or him, entrust yourself to them. This is not just a decision or a mere act of will. We are led to such confidence through what we see in the person. So Jesus offers these signs to lead us to see a bigger picture.
His friend is dead. John gives a number of enigmatic statements: Jesus is glad. Lazarus is resting... He is dead... They thought he meant asleep... At the tomb Jesus weeps in sorrow - yet Lazarus is about to be alive again. Death is very real.
Still we look for the sign. Jesus thanks the Father in words ‘for the sake of all these who stand round me, so that they may believe it was you who sent me.' Still there is something missing. Is this something that cannot be encompassed in a few words? It can only be seen, perceived, grasped dimly at first...
I would suggest it might be put this way: The resuscitation of Lazarus is a sign that death is not The End. But it was only a sign. It points to the meaning of what Jesus is about. In his Passover Jesus will go through the sea of real death into life. In the final outcome, death will be shown to be a fraud. This, I think, is what Paul is getting at in his famous statement: ‘If Christ is not risen our faith is in vain.’ The ultimate reality for every living thing is its death. The hardest thing of all to grasp, to understand, about Jesus is that he passed through death to a new dimension of life. He REALLY did.
Did I not say it could not be expressed in mere words? The 'Cosmic Christ' comes to mind.
At this point in my reflection I must avoid the temptation to mouth the formula: Yes, I believe that. Assent is only a first faltering step. I need to get it! To begin to comprehend with all my feeling being. My horror at my approaching death and my distress at loved ones dying must be put on hold while I peer into the darkness to perceive another dimension. Dying (no matter how awful) is really a going to sleep to awaken beyond this dimension of the reality that we perceive.
My everyday life around the house, at my workbench, in the kitchen, with my wife and children is so real to me. In stillness, inner stillness, I do perceive and entrust myself to the living (risen) Lord that that man Jesus has become.