Fifth Sunday of Lent

Fifth Sunday of Lent
Lectionary: 34

Reading 1 Ez 37:12-14

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,
when I open your graves and have you rise from them,
O my people!
I will put my spirit in you that you may live,
and I will settle you upon your land;
thus you shall know that I am the LORD.
I have promised, and I will do it, says the LORD.

Responsorial Psalm Ps 130:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8.

R. (7) With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.
Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD;
LORD, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to my voice in supplication.
R. With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.
If you, O LORD, mark iniquities,
LORD, who can stand?
But with you is forgiveness,
that you may be revered.
R. With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.
I trust in the LORD;
my soul trusts in his word.
More than sentinels wait for the dawn,
let Israel wait for the LORD.
R. With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.
For with the LORD is kindness
and with him is plenteous redemption;
And he will redeem Israel
from all their iniquities.
R. With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.

Reading 2 Rom 8:8-11

Brothers and sisters:
Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
But you are not in the flesh;
on the contrary, you are in the spirit,
if only the Spirit of God dwells in you.
Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
But 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.

Verse Before the GospelJn 11:25a, 26

I am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord;
whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will never die.

Gospel Jn 11:1-45

Now a man was ill, Lazarus from Bethany,
the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
Mary was the one who had anointed the Lord with perfumed oil
and dried his feet with her hair;
it was her brother Lazarus who was ill.

So the sisters sent word to him saying,
“Master, the one you love is ill.”
When Jesus heard this he said,
“This illness is not to end in death,
but is for the glory of God,
that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
So when he heard that he was ill,
he remained for two days in the place where he was.
Then after this he said to his disciples,
“Let us go back to Judea.”
The disciples said to him,
“Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you,
and you want to go back there?”
Jesus answered,
“Are there not twelve hours in a day?
If one walks during the day, he does not stumble,
because he sees the light of this world.
But if one walks at night, he stumbles,
because the light is not in him.”
He said this, and then told them,
“Our friend Lazarus is asleep,
but I am going to awaken him.”
So the disciples said to him,
“Master, if he is asleep, he will be saved.”
But Jesus was talking about his death,
while they thought that he meant ordinary sleep.
So then Jesus said to them clearly,
“Lazarus has died.
And I am glad for you that I was not there,
that you may believe.
Let us go to him.”
So Thomas, called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples,
“Let us also go to die with him.”
When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus
had already been in the tomb for four days.
Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, only about two miles away.
And many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary
to comfort them about their brother.
When Martha heard that Jesus was coming,
she went to meet him;
but Mary sat at home.
Martha said to Jesus,
“Lord, if you had been here,
my brother would not have died.
But even now I know that whatever you ask of God,
God will give you.”
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 Christ, the Son of God,
the one who is coming into the world.”
When she had said this,
she went and called her sister Mary secretly, saying,
“The teacher is here and is asking for you.”
As soon as she heard this,
she rose quickly and went to him.
For Jesus had not yet come into the village,
but was still where Martha had met him.
So when the Jews who were with her in the house comforting her
saw Mary get up quickly and go out,
they followed her,
presuming that she was going to the tomb to weep there.
When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him,
she fell at his feet and said to him,
“Lord, if you had been here,
my brother would not have died.”
When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping,
he became perturbed and deeply troubled, and said,
“Where have you laid him?”
They said to him, “Sir, come and see.”
And Jesus wept.
So the Jews said, “See how he loved him.”
But some of them said,
“Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man
have done something so that this man would not have died?”
So Jesus, perturbed again, 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.
I know that you always hear me;
but because of the crowd here I have said this,
that they may believe that you sent 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.
So Jesus said to them,
“Untie him and let him go.”
Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary
and seen what he had done began to believe in him.

MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS,

 Usually the reflections and homilies I write each Sunday have a foundation built on those who I chiefly minister to: those behind the wall. For over nine years now this has been central to my ministry and whatever else my ministry has entailed has stemmed from those True Lost Sheep who I am so deeply attached to physically, mentally, and spirituality. They truly are my spiritual brothers and members of my family; every one of them. Today I find myself separated from them and from the volunteers who selflessly give their time and their hearts to the two forgotten communities at MCI Concord and the North Eastern Correctional Center. Even though this may appear to be a challenge to me, the volunteers, and to those in the communities we service it also presents a unique opportunity to take up our Lenten Crosses and go forward with the understanding that nothing can separate us except for ourselves and the temptation not to live out over faith-life in difficult circumstances.

A few weeks ago a volunteer mentioned to me that every time he would leave the prison after leading a program he would feel bad for the inmates because he knew that they could not go home but he could. Even though this was the case he could not fully understand the reality of their situation until his own movements became severely limited because of the Corona Virus. Suddenly he found himself in a circumstance very similar to the individuals the he ministered to: he no longer had complete freedom of movement and found himself being told where he could go and where he could not go. It became a spiritual moment for him as a new reality for the individuals he has a spiritual bond with was revealed to him. It was a thoughtful observation that has also impacted me in a way that I wasn’t expecting. There are times when I like to withdraw and be alone with God. There are also times when I like to do things by myself and for myself. These are times and things where I am accustomed to dictating the scheduling of based on my needs, wants, and desires. For the past week now that has not been the case. Much like those who I minister to, I now find my scheduling and movements being controlled by people other than myself and circumstances that I have no control over. I have become a prisoner of sorts. We are all prisoners in this situation and have found ourselves in a situation and circumstance beyond our control. It is here where we can encounter a type of suffering which can benefit ourselves spiritually while bringing us closer to Jesus Christ.

We as Christians are encouraged to take anything we experience and situation that and apply it to our faith; letting it influence our relationship with Jesus Christ. In this way nothing becomes a problem or obstacle but an opportunity to enrich our lives. Adversity makes us stronger and teaches us to rely on Jesus Christ. As human beings we tend to want to seek out solutions and to solve problems by ourselves. Jesus Christ teaches us that having faith in Him is more important and that surrendering to Him; trusting in Him is the first step in accepting His will above ours. It becomes what He wants and not what we want. With that outlook we can enter into any situation with the understanding that we will be better because of it. There is no failure. There is no travesty. There is only growth.

Here we all are children of God united together in this suffering during the Lenten Season. The entire world is a prisoner of some sorts to this faceless enemy that has the capability of destroying economies, wreaking sickness, and bringing death. By the time the Corona Virus is extricated it will have touched the life of every living thing in the world. Yes, that is all bad in a way but there actually some good hidden in there. We are all on one side having the same thoughts and feelings. No one is exempt. All routines and lifestyles have been disrupted in a way and all are suffering. As Christians we are meant to suffer because Christ suffered for us. It is through suffering that a very special grace is encountered. It becomes a unifying factor that brings about a new life through, by, and in Jesus Christ. Even though the world is suffering it is suffering together and has an opportunity to get closer to Jesus Christ. That is the entire purpose of a Lenten Cross and here we have one that we all can carry together.

Our time incarcerated can be used as time to pray for those that we are suffering with and ministering to. We are in a forced exile which strips away all of the things that aren’t really important and enables us to look directly at those things that are truly important to us. There are truly no more distractions to divert ourselves from truly important things because only the important things remain; one of those being Jesus Christ. Let us take this time to get to know ourselves and Jesus Christ deeper. Let us take this opportunity to build on a strong foundation of faith and love. Let us take this opportunity to come closer together unified as children of God.

Deacon Tom