Fifth Sunday of Lent
Our resurrection
When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days … Martha [his sister] said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died … ” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise.” Martha said to him, “I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.” …her sister … Mary … fell at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” … And Jesus wept …came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay across it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the dead man’s sister, said to him, “Lord, by now there will be a stench; he has been dead for four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus raised his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you for hearing me …” And when he had said this, he cried out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, tied hand and foot with burial bands, and his face was wrapped in a cloth … Jn 11,17-44
Before entering the night of his week of passion, Jesus performed this miracle of the resurrection of Lazarus, symbol of our resurrection from the sin. The words of Jesus to Martha are addressed to us: “Your brother will rise .….. I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die”. We are in need to resurrect from the death of the sin, which every days trails us into its vortex. But Jesus, knowing the frailty of the human nature, established the church and the sacraments: the baptism which makes us being reborn to a new life, the eucharist which gives us the strength to walk through the snares of the world, the reconciliation which allows us to start again and again our journey of redemption. We are immersed in the sin and in the forgiveness, in the death and in the resurrection, waiting to finally resurrect into the eternity. The death and resurrection of Lazarus symbolize the way of this earthly life and we eventually will rise, because – Jesus says today – “everyone who lives and believes in me, will never die”. This hope is rooted in our faith, if we loose it there would be nothing else to lose. Each man who comes into the faith is like a baby in the arms of the mother: he is in need of everything and he cannot provide anything which really matters, but he is living in joy because he knows that the whole of his need will be satisfied with infinite love.