Fifth Sunday of Lent

Lectionary: 34

Reading I

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

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 II

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 Gospel

Jn 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,

 

Over these last three Sundays, our Lenten Journey has been complimented with the Gospel Readings from John. Each have a particular focus which brings us to a fuller understanding of the divinity of Jesus Christ and the impact that He has on all of God’s creation. We are continuously offered the Living Water of Jesus which has the capability of transforming our lives. He offers us true wisdom and a true understanding of the universe around us. It is through Jesus that our eyes are opened to the truth. To fully understand the truth, we must forget everything that we thought we knew previously and embrace what is being offered to us now. God’s wisdom puts the wisdom of this world to shame. It is through Jesus that the truth is revealed. This truth and the salvation that it brings is given to all who accept Jesus for who He is, as the Son of God, and for those who allow Him to enter into a relationship with them. All are then healed from their self-inflicted wounds. Through the resurrection of Lazarus, it is revealed that death is not something to be feared, but somethings that has been conquered by Jesus himself. When we turn our lives and will over to Jesus, we too as God’s children have nothing to fear. Our final destination has been revealed.

 

What a blessing it is to have the opportunity to be joined with our God and walk in the sunlight of the spirit. We as Christians have this opportunity all our lives. There are always two paths before us. Two choices are presented constantly. Do we want to walk the path of this physical world or do we want to walk the path of light which brings us into an intimate experience with our God? The prophet Ezekiel revealed to us that God wants us to be filled with His spirit so that we may experience Him completely. He is always ready to send it, but we must be ready to accept it. There is always the temptation to resist this gift, because it requires  we humble ourselves before the greatness of our creator. It is our nature, through Original Sin, that we are tempted to act like gods ourselves, thus refusing that God’s will is above ours. Our desires are disordered and transfixed upon things that will ultimately destroy us even though that might bring us limited satisfaction. Being receptive to the Spirit of God gives us an opportunity to see things as they really are and through the limited vision that a merely physical existence gives us.

 

The story of Lazarus has come alive for me this Lenten Season. I have a very close friend of mine. He is 86 six years old. He is a deacon, husband, and a father. He has lived a life of service through his ministry. At the same time, he has had his own struggles with alcoholism, addiction, and family tragedies. All of these things have shaped him into the person he is today and have shaped his relationship with God. Whatever he faced and whatever he experienced was always approached with the perspective that God was with him. There was an underlying truth beyond what he was confronting or experiencing. This truth was always revealed eventually through prayer and a conversation with God. When his wife died recently, he realized that his time on this earth was coming to a close. Having lunch together, he looked at me and said, “I have done everything that I wanted to do. There is nothing left to do. I am ready to go.” He then explained how he entered into conversation every day with his wife and with God. Being set up with hospice and with an understanding that he was going to die, actually gave him a realization that he had embarked on a new ministry. Instead of being consoled, he was consoling all those who were visiting him for what they thought would be the last time. He described the interactions as amazing and a blessing from God. It could be described as a “Beautiful Death.” Yet, it was not a death. He had been invigorated and raised up into a new realm of existence. His own words describe it the best, “I have a friend who failed hospice twice.” This man is ministering to me and all those who surround him in his last hours. Each time I call him, he starts the conversation by saying, “I am not dead yet.” As the Apostle Paul said,

 

“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.”

My friend is alive in the spirit and the spirit is conquering the flesh.

Twice it mentioned in the Gospel Reading today that Jesus was perturbed. He was bothered by the lack of  faith and understanding of those who were following Him. Even though this bothered Him, He gave them what they needed to be strengthened so that they may believe. In much the same way, God will give us what we need so that we may believe. But, at the same time, we must be willing to receive what is being given. We have to stop resisting and be open to Him. As Jesus said,

“Ask and you shall receive. Seek and you shall find. Knock and the door shall be opened.”

All these promises are fulfilled through action by us. God has already acted. We now must act. Jesus has offered us the Living Water. It is through the wisdom of Jesus that we are abled to see the truth of God’s creation and can experience a new life with Him. Recognizing the divinity of Jesus Christ brings us to the pinnacle of our existence where death itself does not matter. We then become dead to the flesh and alive in the spirit.

 

Deacon Tom

 

 

Fourth Sunday of Lent
Lectionary: 31

Reading 1 1 Sm 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a

The LORD said to Samuel:
“Fill your horn with oil, and be on your way.
I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem,
for I have chosen my king from among his sons.”

As Jesse and his sons came to the sacrifice,
Samuel looked at Eliab and thought,
“Surely the LORD’s anointed is here before him.”
But the LORD said to Samuel:
“Do not judge from his appearance or from his lofty stature,
because I have rejected him.
Not as man sees does God see,
because man sees the appearance
but the LORD looks into the heart.”
In the same way Jesse presented seven sons before Samuel,
but Samuel said to Jesse,
“The LORD has not chosen any one of these.”
Then Samuel asked Jesse,
“Are these all the sons you have?”
Jesse replied,
“There is still the youngest, who is tending the sheep.”
Samuel said to Jesse,
“Send for him;
we will not begin the sacrificial banquet until he arrives here.”
Jesse sent and had the young man brought to them.
He was ruddy, a youth handsome to behold
and making a splendid appearance.
The LORD said,
“There—anoint him, for this is the one!”
Then Samuel, with the horn of oil in hand,
anointed David in the presence of his brothers;
and from that day on, the spirit of the LORD rushed upon David.

Responsorial Psalm Ps 23: 1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6.

R. (1)  The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
beside restful waters he leads me;
he refreshes my soul.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
He guides me in right paths
for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk in the dark valley
I fear no evil; for you are at my side
With your rod and your staff
that give me courage.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
You spread the table before me
in the sight of my foes;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
Only goodness and kindness follow me
all the days of my life;
and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
for years to come.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.

Reading 2 Eph 5:8-14

Brothers and sisters:
You were once darkness,
but now you are light in the Lord.
Live as children of light,
for light produces every kind of goodness
and righteousness and truth.
Try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.
Take no part in the fruitless works of darkness;
rather expose them, for it is shameful even to mention
the things done by them in secret;
but everything exposed by the light becomes visible,
for everything that becomes visible is light.
Therefore, it says:
 
“Awake, O sleeper,
and arise from the dead,
and Christ will give you light.”

Verse Before the GospelJn 8:12

I am the light of the world, says the Lord;
whoever follows me will have the light of life.

Gospel Jn 9:1-41

As Jesus passed by he saw a man blind from birth.
His disciples asked him,
“Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents,
that he was born blind?”
Jesus answered,
“Neither he nor his parents sinned;
it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him.
We have to do the works of the one who sent me while it is day.
Night is coming when no one can work.
While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
When he had said this, he spat on the ground
and made clay with the saliva,
and smeared the clay on his eyes,
and said to him,
“Go wash in the Pool of Siloam” —which means Sent—.
So he went and washed, and came back able to see.

His neighbors and those who had seen him earlier as a beggar said,
“Isn’t this the one who used to sit and beg?”
Some said, “It is, “
but others said, “No, he just looks like him.”
He said, “I am.”
So they said to him, “How were your eyes opened?”
He replied,
“The man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes
and told me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’
So I went there and washed and was able to see.”
And they said to him, “Where is he?”
 
He said, “I don’t know.”

They brought the one who was once blind to the Pharisees.
Now Jesus had made clay and opened his eyes on a sabbath.
So then the Pharisees also asked him how he was able to see.
He said to them,
“He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and now I can see.”
So some of the Pharisees said,
“This man is not from God,
because he does not keep the sabbath.”
But others said,
“How can a sinful man do such signs?”
And there was a division among them.
So they said to the blind man again,
“What do you have to say about him,
since he opened your eyes?”
He said, “He is a prophet.”

Now the Jews did not believe
that he had been blind and gained his sight
until they summoned the parents of the one who had gained his sight.
They asked them,
“Is this your son, who you say was born blind?
How does he now see?”
His parents answered and said,
“We know that this is our son and that he was born blind.
We do not know how he sees now,
nor do we know who opened his eyes.
Ask him, he is of age;
he can speak for himself.”
His parents said this because they were afraid
of the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed
that if anyone acknowledged him as the Christ,
he would be expelled from the synagogue.
For this reason his parents said,
“He is of age; question him.”

So a second time they called the man who had been blind
and said to him, “Give God the praise!
We know that this man is a sinner.”
He replied,
“If he is a sinner, I do not know.
One thing I do know is that I was blind and now I see.”
So they said to him,
“What did he do to you?
How did he open your eyes?”
He answered them,
“I told you already and you did not listen.
Why do you want to hear it again?
 
Do you want to become his disciples, too?”
They ridiculed him and said,
“You are that man’s disciple;
we are disciples of Moses!
We know that God spoke to Moses,
but we do not know where this one is from.”
The man answered and said to them,
“This is what is so amazing,
that you do not know where he is from, yet he opened my eyes.
We know that God does not listen to sinners,
but if one is devout and does his will, he listens to him.
It is unheard of that anyone ever opened the eyes of a person born blind.
If this man were not from God,
he would not be able to do anything.”
They answered and said to him,
“You were born totally in sin,
and are you trying to teach us?”
Then they threw him out.

When Jesus heard that they had thrown him out,
he found him and said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
He answered and said,
“Who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?”
Jesus said to him,
“You have seen him,
the one speaking with you is he.”
He said,
“I do believe, Lord,” and he worshiped him.
Then Jesus said,
“I came into this world for judgment,
so that those who do not see might see,
and those who do see might become blind.”

Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard this
and said to him, “Surely we are not also blind, are we?”
Jesus said to them,
“If you were blind, you would have no sin;
but now you are saying, ‘We see,’ so your sin remains.

 

MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS,

 

 As Children of the Light we have indeed been called out of the darkness into the light to be bathed with its brilliance. Christ is the Light of the World and shines forth from and into all of God’s Creation. The darkness that we came from represents an ignorance of the truth which is Jesus Christ. It also represents a life without Jesus Christ and a lack of relationship with Him. Without Jesus in our lives we can find ourselves walking blindly, making wrong decisions, and ultimately going down the wrong road. Even though this can be exciting at times, it always leads to the same place: dead ends and desolate places.

 

When we explore a relationship with Jesus Christ and allow Him into our lives everything that came before, is now, and will be takes on a different meaning. Without Jesus Christ things are naturally interpreted and understood without the influence of Him. He is taken out of the equation because it is not known how He fits. When Jesus is taken into account things take on a different meaning because His influence on everything is then revealed. It is much like looking at a  painting. It can be looked at without taking into account the artists thoughts, feelings, or attitudes. When this is done there is no depth to the painting; no emotional or spiritual feeling that can be extracted from it. When that same painting is looked at with the perspective of the artist taken into account then an entirely different perception of the painting is revealed and experienced; it is deeper, more meaningful, and makes more sense then when it stood alone. In much the same way  God’s creation, including us in it, takes on a different meaning when the intent of the creator is taken into account and we enter into a relationship with Him. Things that might have baffled us before or caused confusion make complete sense and what might have caused us fear and anxiety are now accepted and put into the proper perspective. Most importantly, the Love of God can be felt and experienced the way God wanted us to be able to do in the first place.

 

This was what Jesus was referring to when speaking to the Pharisees. Well educated and well-versed in Jewish Law, they were blinded by the knowledge that they possessed and their interpretation thereof.  Jesus emphasized that for someone to see the truth and God’s creation for what it was everything that was known before and its interpretation must be forgotten and relearned through the perspective of Him: the Son of God. In other words, in order for one to see the truth he must become blind first in order that he may learn to see. There is a process of acceptance in this exercise. We must understand that a lot of what we have been told in our lives by other people is untrue and that the real truth lies within a relationship with Jesus Christ. Accepting Jesus as the Son of God and committing ourselves to a relationship with him clears away all of the clutter and conceptions that we have created over long periods of time and introduces us to a new world that is defined by the Light of Christ and puts Him in the center of everything where He belongs. It becomes a gigantic reset and one that is worthwhile. Just as the blind man was healed by his interaction with Jesus Christ we too are capable of being healed through our experiences with him.

 

As Christians we are encouraged to approach Jesus from where we are in our lives. There are no preconditions to a relationship with him only a child-like acceptance of who He is. From there, a relationship with him will foster and grow by leaps and bounds if only we allow it to. This does require a surrendering of what we thought we knew before and being open to what a life with Jesus if offering us. There is a process to this and it all begins with the first step out of the darkness into the light.

 

Deacon Tom