Fifth Sunday of Lent
Scrutiny Year A Readings
Lectionary: 34
Reading I
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
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
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
I am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord;
whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will never die.
Gospel
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,
The Spirit of God does indeed dwell inside of us. Created out of love, this is unavoidable. There are times when we do not recognize this, and the results of our actions speak for themselves: there are disordered desires, chaos, disappointments, and tragedy. With God, these things can be overcome, but without Him we are always at risk of being overcome by them. As the Apostle Paul wrote, the spirit is constantly at war with the flesh because they are incompatible. We are corrupted by Original Sin and resist that which is the perfect good. It is the Spirit of God that gives us the strength to conquer all that is evil in this world, but we must embrace it and not ignore it. We cannot pick and choose when to be open to it working inside of us and when not to. This will cause duplicity in our lives. We learn today that, “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” This is a straightforward statement that leaves no room for misinterpretation. When we focus on things of the flesh, we separate ourselves from God, thus the relationship with Him is at risk. There must be constant maintenance to ensure we find ourselves resting in the spirit. As Jesus Christ told us through His disciples, “Remain in me and I will remain in you.” There is a sequence of action here. Jesus Christ dwells within us. We can recognize this and be open to His presence or we can shut the door. It is entirely up to us if we want to accept what is being given to us freely and unequivocally.
Recognizing the Spirit dwelling within us leads us to Jesus Christ, who then brings us to the Father. This journey is life-long in nature where the end marks a new beginning. Jesus shows us the way that will ultimately lead us to our resurrection. Transformed by His presence now, we are promised to be transformed again for eternity. Marked as chosen by Him now, we have duties and responsibilities now that define our relationship with Him and how we interact with Him, while we are being prepared for something even greater. So, we have an opportunity for a better life now and a greater existence in the future. How great is our God who loves us so much that He wants everything good for us now and forever?
In the resurrection of Lazarus, the Apostle John made it a point to write that Jesus was perturbed when he saw Mary and the Jews weeping. There was a disappointment that after all that was revealed to them, that there was still doubt and disbelief. The flesh was winning over the spirit. Yet, not soon afterwards, Jesus Himself wept. This was for their benefit, an understanding that in our humanness we all at one point or another will be overcome by a propensity to disbelieve. It is at times such as these that we need to refocus our thoughts and actions on the spiritual instead of the corporal. The resurrection of Lazarus was a revelation of Jesus’ resurrection and the Resurrection of the Dead as a whole. It also serves as a reminder that Jesus Christ has conquered death itself. With this understanding, we as Christians must shape our lives with this constantly present in our thoughts: there will be a Resurrection of the Dead and it is through Jesus Christ that this is achieved. It cannot be minimized. This is a central aspect of our faith and our destination. Death is just the beginning, so thus it is celebrated in our faith with the knowledge of all those who have gone before us, the Faithful Departed, are still with us.
We all have struggles. We all have moments of doubt. These things have their roots in the physical world. Focusing on that which is spiritual in nature, will keep us open to the Love of God which can then comfort us. We will gain the fortitude to overcome these things for the Greater Glory of God through Jesus Christ. As the Psalm says, “With the Lord, there is mercy and fullness of redemption.” The promises of a new life today and forever through the Spirit of God and the work it can do can bring us comfort and strength when facing obstacles. Nothing lasts forever, except through Jesus Christ and the understanding that through Him nothing is impossible.
Deacon Tom
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