Readings & Reflections with Cardinal Tagle’s Video: Fifth Sunday of Lent A & St. Ludovico of Casoria, March 29,2020

In this Sunday’s Gospel (Jn 11:1-45) Jesus gave instructions to remove the stone from the tomb of Lazarus and 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.” Then Lazarus appeared with new life which points to the glory of Christ risen forever and embodies the Christian hope that one day we will share Christ’s glory beyond the tomb (Eph 1:3-6; Rom 8:29). Now many of the Jews who had seen what he had done began to believe in him. In commenting on this St. Augustine wrote that there “was no gain to Jesus; it was only for our good. Therefore, Jesus says that his illness is not unto death because the particular death was not for death but rather for a miracle, which, being wrought, men should believe in Christ and thereby avoids the true death.” What is “true death” spoken by St. Augustine? Clearly he means mortal sin, the reality of sin unto death described forcefully in the first Letter of John (5:16-17). Here’s the ten commandments of God for our examination of conscience to avoid committing a mortal sin. Watch this video on the 10 Commandments: What you should know click this link: http://www.pagadiandiocese.org/2016/12/28/the-ten-commandments-what-you-should-know/

In today’s culture of death that winks at sin and embraces evil of abortion is precisely the valley of dry bones described in the prophecy of Ezekiel (37:12-14). How can I submit my life to the Lord Jesus to remove my sins of indifference and selfishness in the midst of this culture of death? How to Change Someone’s Mind on Abortion in One Minute, Show Them This Video click this link: http://www.pagadiandiocese.org/2017/03/09/how-to-change-someones-mind-on-abortion-in-one-minute-show-them-this-video/

AMDG+

Opening Prayer

Heavenly Father, the love of your Son, our Lord Jesus, led him to accept the suffering of the cross so that we who have sinned might glory in new life. Lord, change our selfishness into self-giving and help us to embrace the cross you have given each of us so that we may, with your grace, be able to transform the darkness of our worldly life  into a new life and joy in Christ. Healer of body and soul, cure the sickness of our spirit, so that we may grow in holiness through your constant care. We beg You to grant all our hearts’ desires through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Reading I
Ez 37:12-14 – I will put my spirit in you that you may live.

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.
The word of 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 II
Rom 8:8-11 – The Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you.

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.
The word of the Lord.

Gospel
John 11:1-45 – I am the resurrection and the life.

Bishop Robert Barron’s Homily: Let him go click below:

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 Jesus 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.

The Gospel of the Lord.

Reflection 1 – At Lazarus’ tomb

Dr. Scott Hahn’s reflection: Listen Here

As we draw near to the end of Lent, today’s Gospel clearly has Jesus’ passion and death in view.

That’s why John gives us the detail about Lazarus’ sister, Mary—that she is the one who anointed the Lord for burial (see John 12:3,7). His disciples warn against returning to Judea; Thomas even predicts they will “die with Him” if they go back.

When Lazarus is raised, John notices the tombstone being taken away, as well as Lazarus’ burial cloths and head covering—all details he later notices with Jesus’ empty tomb (see John 20:1,6,7).

Like the blind man in last week’s readings, Lazarus represents all humanity. He stands for “dead man”—for all those Jesus loves and wants to liberate from the bands of sin and death.

John even recalls the blind man in his account today (see John 11:37). Like the man’s birth in blindness, Lazarus’ death is used by Jesus to reveal “the glory of God” (see John 9:3). And again like last week, Jesus’ words and deeds give sight to those who believe (see John 11:40).

If we believe, we will see—that Jesus loves each of us as He loved Lazarus, that He calls us out of death and into new life.

By His Resurrection Jesus has fulfilled Ezekiel’s promise in today’s First Reading. He has opened the graves that we may rise, put His Spirit in us that we may live. This is the Spirit that Paul writes of in today’s Epistle. The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead will give life to we who were once dead in sin.

Faith is the key. If we believe as Martha does in today’s Gospel—that Jesus is the resurrection and the life—even if we die, we will live.

“I have promised and I will do it,” the Father assures us in the First Reading. We must trust in His word, as we sing in today’s Psalm—that with Him is forgiveness and salvation. – Read the source: https://stpaulcenter.com/reflections/at-lazarus-tomb-scott-hahn-reflects-on-the-fifth-sunday-of-lent

Reflection 2 – Jesus gives new life to Lazarus

In today’s gospel, I see Jesus show what it is to be His friend. He came not only to comfort Lazarus’ sisters, Martha and Mary but to give Him new life. Such was the kind of love Jesus had for His friend Lazarus. Such is the love He has for all of us when decided to pay for the prize that was on our head, as sinners. He died for us so that we may be acceptable in Father’s kingdom. He allowed Himself to be made our gate pass to the Father’s heaven banquet!

However, the story of Lazarus somehow makes me feel quite uneasy.  As much as I see Jesus in His most human state, I somehow entertained the thought that Jesus was playing favorites and I felt jealous. I wanted Him to treat everyone equally-that He be an equal opportunity miracle worker.

This thought was quite strong in my heart because I know what it is to be left out, to be an outsider and not to be one of the in-crowd. Considering my shortcomings, my imperfections  and my sinfulness the thought that I will never merit such a blessing from our Lord was very strong. Considering how some people so close to me have passed me off as a lost cause, that thought, has made me even feel so sorry for myself.

But while in deep thought and prayer, I asked myself just as I asked God if this is the truth behind our relationship. He comforted me when He reminded me of His promise, “You are in the spirit as the Spirit of God dwells in you. Christ is in you and you belong to me. The One who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal body through his Spirit dwelling in you.”

Today as I picture myself as one of those people watching as Jesus’ friends roll away the stone from Lazarus’ tomb and give him new life, I feel certain that God Who really cares for all of us and Who has never forgotten me is slowly removing the stone that blocks me from truly being one with Him and the Father.  I trust that His healing grace is upon all of us and that in His goodness and love, I will be made whole, restored and given New Life.

Jesus said:  “Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?” Yes Lord, I truly claim that your glory and that of the Father will be with me as I have come to believe and follow your Word in all that I do.  You are the resurrection and the life, whoever believes in You, even if he dies will live and  everyone who lives and believes in You will never die.  So help me, my Lord and Savior!

Direction

Remove anything that blocks us in our relationship with God and His people especially the stone of pride that impedes healing of relationships.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, perfect the faith of your people. Pour your healing grace upon your church so that as one Body we may all live in your Light and have the promise of New Life. In Jesus, I pray. Amen.

Reflection 3 – Not a period but comma

Somebody once said that a dead atheist is one who’s inside the coffin, all dressed up, but nowhere to go. The gospel of this 5th Sunday of Lent teaches that death is not the ultimate end but a passage from this world to the next. For a Christian, death is not a period but a comma in the story of life. Jesus restored the dead Lazarus to life but he had to die again eventually, showing that death is an inevitable reality of life. In the conversation between Jesus and Martha on the death of her brother Lazarus, Martha says, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” Jesus assured her: “Your brother will rise to life.” (John 11:23). Martha replies: “I know he will rise on the last day.” Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in Me though he should die, will come to life.” (v.26).

Dr. Elizabeth Kubler Ross, a psychiatrist and author of “On Death and Dying,” and Dr. Raymund A. Moody Jr., who published Life After Life, confirm a “core experience” of patients who were close to death or clinically dead. They recount how they were outside of, or separated from their bodies, of communicating with deceased loved ones, of gliding down a dark tunnel toward a lustrous light. One thing they all agreed on was that they did not want to come back to life – not because they had enemies or debts back home! – but they preferred the peace and bliss they experienced in the next life. Although there are variations in the accounts, the responses are always similar. The intense scientific investigations of these physicians gained them international renown for their unusual findings. For the church, such findings are most welcome since they CONFIRM, not replace, a religious conviction.

For us Christians, a scientific proof is not really necessary IF WE BELIEVE in the teachings of Christ and His Church. Life after death and immortality are the bedrock of Christian faith. Yes, Jesus Himself died but His death inaugurated the resurrection of human beings. This is what St. Paul means when he declares that death has no lasting power, that the victory of death is in truth no victory at all. “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” (1 Cor. 15:55).

The episode on Lazarus’ death is as timely and relevant today as during Christ’s time because we see, for instance, our dearest relatives die from cancer or accidents. We also read about people wiped out by earthquake and tsunami in Japan or by wars in the Middle East.

These encounters should remind us how fragile and short life is. But we draw hope and strength in the Lord who said death is not the end and that He is the resurrection and life.

Let us renew our faith in Jesus, our ultimate hope. At the same time, let’s fill our lives with good works because we will be judged on these on Judgment Day.

In the words of the spiritual writer: “I shall pass this world but once. Any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness that I can show, let me do it now. Let me not neglect nor defer it for I shall not pass this way again.” (Source: Fr. Bel San Luis, SVD. www.mb.com.ph  April 8, 2011; or http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/313381/not-a-period-a-comma).

Reflection 4 – “Do-It-Yourself”

Among priests, one hears a joke in which a pastor tells his parishioners that he is terribly afraid of dying in the confessional. “Why?” they ask him. He replies, “Because no one would find me for days!” Another priest told me that, after six months in his new parish, he announced to the people that he was asking the bishop for a transfer. “You don’t need me. I’ve sat in the confessional for half-a-year, and nobody has come. You must all be saints. I want to serve sinners.”

These stories are not mine. These are from Timothy Cardinal Dolan the Archbishop of New York in his pastoral letter issued last month entitled “The Altar and the Confessional.” We may laugh at these stories. But this is no laughing matter. The sacrament of Confession is not anymore popular among many Catholics. Thousands receive Holy Communion, but only a handful of them go to confession. It is either many Catholics are becoming holy, or they have totally lost the sense of sin.

One major factor for this sad reality in the Church is the do-it-yourself mentality so prevalent among people nowadays. The present culture has successfully ingrained in our minds and behavior the attitude of self-sufficiency and autonomy, making one’s absolute independence the primary goal in life. We often hear people saying, “I want to do it my way” or “I can handle this myself. I don’t need anybody’s help.”

This attitude caters to a selfish behavior, and has made so many people lonely and isolated. This is not what our Lord wants for us. He wants us to live in peace, harmony and happiness. That is why He created us as social beings. In the Book of Genesis, after creating Adam, God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suited to him” (Gen 2:18).

In our spiritual journey, we are not – and should not be – alone. As pilgrims, we travel together as members of one community, one family of God. We need one another; we are not meant to be independent, but interdependent. This particularly becomes evident when we fall into sin. Mortal sin cuts us off from the grace of God and from community life. We cannot rise up by our own power. We need the help of others, the Church, so that we can approach Jesus and regain our freedom and life. Similarly, we have to help others on the way to conversion. St. James said, “He should know that whoever brings back a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins” (Jas 5:20).

This is clearly illustrated in the Gospel this Sunday. Lazarus was a close friend of Jesus. He died and was entombed for four days. When Jesus came, he raised him up from death by just calling out to him, “Lazarus, come out!” What is noteworthy is that afterwards, Jesus gave out an order to his disciples, “Untie him and let him go.” Though raised from death, Lazarus could not move because of the burial cloths that bound his hands and feet. Someone had to untie him to free him from this bondage. Jesus sought the cooperation of his disciples in giving to Lazarus the fullness of his new life and freedom.

This Gospel event alludes to the sacrament of Penance or Confession. When we are in mortal sin, we are spiritually dead. Though God wants to forgive us and give us new life, He waits for our assent in freedom. Yet no matter how great is our desire to go back to God, we cannot move on our own for we are paralyzed by sin; we are spiritually shackled by the bonds of sin. This is where the Church, the community of believers, comes in. Through the ministry of the Church, in the sacrament of Penance, the priest cuts loose the oppressive bondage by the words of sacramental absolution.

So, for those who espouse the idea of “direct-to-God confession”, it is simply not possible according to the mind of God. Worse still, it is just a lame excuse of proud and selfish persons who refuse to humble themselves and ask the help of another. Undoubtedly, it is one of the attractive inventions of a culture that has lost the sense of sin.

The loss of the sense of sin is such an unfortunate thing to happen to any believer. But, has the world really lost it? Cardinal Dolan does not think so. In his pastoral letter, he noted that, on the contrary, people have become more sensitive to sin. Proof of this is the fact that scandals, misdemeanors, crimes and sinful behaviors of famous personalities are the regular fare of television, magazines and newspapers. The media is very busy poking its nose into the private lives of politicians, celebrities and even priests, hoping to bring out into the open all their dirty linens and skeletons in their closet. And the people eagerly patronize such unsavory news and nasty gossips.

Ironically, while this present culture is drifting away from the sacrament of Confession, it has also, at the same time, adopted the “confessional culture,” as Archbishop Dolan called it. Reality shows, talk shows and social networking sites reveal the personal lives and sinful behavior of people who unabashedly “confess” to the worldwide public. These are confessions, that’s true, but not in the sacrament, and so there is no absolution, no forgiveness and no redemption. These end up in more sorrow and despair, and the sins that are exposed in the media are trivialized and even romanticized.

As Christians, we are not without hope. In His unfathomable wisdom and boundless love for sinners, God has given us the sacrament of Penance. We are never alone in seeking His mercy and forgiveness. The Church, through the priest, works with Jesus in this sacrament to untie the bondage of sin and give us freedom.

We are now on the fifth week of Lent. Next Sunday, we will begin the Holy Week with the celebration of Palm Sunday or Passion Sunday. If until now we have not yet availed of the sacrament of Confession, what are we still waiting for? We may be running out of time. We are serious about filing our income tax before the deadline, and we know when the deadline is. But in matters of the soul, nobody knows the deadline – it may come when we least expect it (Source: Fr. Mike Lagrimas, St. Michael the Archangel Parish, Amsterdam St., Capitol Park Homes, Matandang Balara, Quezon City 1119).

Reflection 5 – I am the resurrection and the life

If a true “friend loves at all times” (Proverbs 17:17), why did Jesus delay in coming to Lazarus’ home when he knew that his friend was gravely ill? Jesus certainly loved Lazarus and his two sisters and he often stayed in their home at Bethany. But to the surprise of his friends and disciples, Jesus did not go right away to Bethany when he was called. Jesus explained that Lazarus’ sickness would bring glory to God. The glory which Jesus had in mind, however, was connected with suffering and the cross. He saw the cross as his supreme glory and the way to glory in the kingdom of God. For Jesus there was no other way to glory except through the cross.

Jesus also knew that it was dangerous for him to travel anywhere near Jerusalem at this time, since the religious authorities in Jerusalem were plotting his destruction. Jesus, however, was willing to pay the price to help his friend. For Jesus to come to Jerusalem at Passover time was an act of courage. The explanation which Jesus gave to his disciples was simple and challenging at the same time. “Are there not twelve hours in the day?” In so many words he said: “There are enough hours in the day to do what one must do.” A day can neither be rushed nor extended. Its period is fixed.

Courage to act in the light of God’s truth
In God’s economy we each have our “day” whether it be short or long. While time is limited, there is enough for us to accomplish what God intends. God gives each of us our allotted portion in life. We can either waste it or use it to the utmost for God’s glory. Jesus did not let circumstances or pressure dictate what he would do. Nor did he permit others to dictate his actions or timetable. He took action of his own initiative and in his good time. Don’t we often try to get God to do things in our way and on our timetable?

Both the Romans and the Jews divided the day into twelve equal hours from sunrise to sunset. The day’s work and travel, however, ceased when the daylight was gone. If someone wanted to get their day’s work done, he had to do it before it got dark. Jesus made a spiritual analogy with our relationship with God. While the light of Christ is with us, we must live and walk in the truth and grace of his light. There’s a right time to make peace with God, and that time is now. When darkness comes, then judgment follows for those who refuse God and spurn his love.

When Jesus announced that Lazarus was dead and that he was going to Jerusalem, Thomas showed both his courage and pessimism. “Let us go, that we may die with him.” This courage, however, was not tempered with faith and hope in God’s promise to bring victory out of defeat. Even though Thomas was a witness to Lazarus’ resurrection, he betrayed his master when arrest and death stared him in the face. He doubted his master’s resurrection until Jesus showed him the wounds of his passion. God gives us faith, courage, and the strength we need to persevere through any trial and suffering we must face in this life. If we embrace our cross with faith and trust in God, then we, too, will see victory and glory in the end.

The hope of our resurrection
What is the significance of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead? It is more than a miraculous event. It is a “sign” of God’s promise to raise up all who have died in Christ to everlasting life. That is why Jesus asked Martha if she believed in the resurrection from the dead. The Christian creed, which is the profession of our faith in God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and in the saving power of God, culminates in the proclamation of the resurrection of the dead on the last day and in life everlasting. This is our faith and our hope.

“If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit which dwells in you” (Romans 8:11).

God gives us the power of his Holy Spirit that we may be made alive in Christ.  Even now we can experience the power of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus in our personal lives. The Holy Spirit is ever ready to change and transform us into men and women of faith, hope, and love. Do you believe that the power of Jesus’ resurrection is at work in your life today? Let the Holy Spirit strengthen within you the life and joy of God and the hope of heaven.

God is my help
The name Lazarus means “God is my help”. Jesus’ parable about the poor man Lazarus, who died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom (Luke 16:19-31), ends with a warning: “If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if some one should rise from the dead.” Through Lazarus’ sickness and subsequent death, God brought glory through his Son the Lord Jesus, who raised his friend from the dead in anticipation of his own death and resurrection. Our participation in the Lord’s Supper in the Eucharist already gives us a foretaste of Jesus’ transfiguration of our bodies.

Irenaeus, a second century church father states:

“Just as bread that comes from the earth, after God’s blessing has been invoked upon it, is no longer ordinary bread, but Eucharist, formed of two things, the one earthly and the other heavenly: so too our bodies, which partake of the Eucharist, are no longer corruptible, but possess the hope of resurrection”(Adv. Haeres. 4,18).

Psalm 27 ends with the great prayer of hope in the resurrection:

“I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living! Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; yes, wait for the Lord!”

Do you find joy and hope in the resurrection of Jesus Christ?

“Lord Jesus Christ, you have ransomed us with your blood and restored us to life with the Father in heaven. May your resurrection be our hope as we long for the day when we will see you face to face in glory.” – Read the source: http://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/readings/2020/mar29.htm

Reflection 6 – Take away that stone!

A very holy monk spent each day in the desert praying faithfully, growing a small garden and preparing regular meals between periods of prayer. One day an angel appeared to him and said, “The Lord wants you to push the stone outside your cave three times a day.” The monk was baffled at the command but felt obligated to do it, faithfully pushing against the huge stone for several months. Finally, exasperated, he knelt down and said, “Lord, try as I might, I just cannot move the stone.” The angel appeared instantly and said, “The instructions were not to move the stone but to push it. Look at how trim and muscular you’ve become in the last months!”

When Jesus gave instructions to take away the stone from the tomb of Lazarus (Jn 11:39), his friend appeared with new life, destined to die again, but fully alive once again. Only the power of Jesus could move the stone that kept Lazarus a hostage to death and darkness. But there was Lazarus again!

Jesus speaks of glory before and after raising Lazarus. In speaking of the “illness” of Lazarus, says that it is not “unto death” but “for the glory of God” (Jn 11:4). In commenting on this St. Augustine wrote that there “was no gain to Jesus; it was only for our good. Therefore, Jesus says that his illness is not unto death because the particular death was not for death but rather for a miracle, which, being wrought, men should believe in Christ and thereby avoids the true death.”

What is “true death” spoken by St. Augustine? Clearly he means mortal sin, the reality of sin unto death described forcefully in the first Letter of John (5:16-17). The late famous psychiatrist Karl Menninger wrote in 1973 Whatever Happened to Sin? As a thoroughly secularized culture has increasingly denied the reality of sin, sincere but mistaken Catholics have forgotten that we have the awful, lethal capacity to destroy grace in human terms through mortal sin. To be sure, not every sin is mortal (1 Jn 5:17), but every sin, however slight or venial, is essentially a self-destructive vote against God and against the life of grace. But when three conditions converge – a seriously immoral choice, full awareness of this evil and a free choice of this morally deadly option, we have the perfect storm known as mortal sin. God fully respects our freedom and intelligence since he created these faculties for us. But we have the power to abuse them in such a way as to offend an all-loving God by making a choice directly a violation of God’s love.

Martha feared the stench of death that the body of her brother Lazarus would exude if the stone were moved away from the grave. Can anyone deny the stench of deadly sins that foul our environment daily? As people legitimately worry about climate change and opt to go green, can we remain comfortable with attitudes and actions such as abortion, embryonic stem cell destruction, racism, or homosexual and adulterous lifestyle that truly stink to high heaven? A culture of death that winks at sin and embraces evil is precisely the valley of dry bones described in the prophecy of Ezekiel (37:12-14). If tempted to believe that sin has triumphed and our modest efforts have been unavailing, we must pray fervently that the Holy Spirit breathe the life into the dry bones of militant atheism, indifference and narcissism littering our cultural valley. The choice is completely yours: either the breath of the Spirit or the stench of sin.

May, the glory of Christ roll away the heavy barrier of our sin that keeps us entombed and apart from his light and grace. (Source: Stephen F. Brett, “Homilies,” Homiletic & Pastoral Review, Vol. CVIII, No. 5, New Jersey: Ignatius Press, February 2008, pp. 35-36; Suggested reading: Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1033-35;1452-1458).

Reflection 7 – I didn’t see the time go by

As St. Paul tells us today, we are consecrated to the truth, not to the ways of the world. We belong to Christ, not to the world, and the flesh, and the devil. We are called to the light of goodness, not to the darkness of evil (cf. 1 Thess 5:5). But we may reject any or all of these callings and consecrations. Out of pride, or in the grip of moral stupor, we may deny the Truth; we may distort the beautiful; we may disparage goodness. We may embrace the profane, and reject the sacred. We may willingly surrender to what is only here and now, forsaking eternity. Coming to our senses later in life, as the end draws near, we may say (as perhaps Lazarus himself did) that “I didn’t see the time go by.”

One of the most important words in philosophy is perspective, referring to the ability to see through things, to find their real meaning. With Catholic eyes, we see, not a wafer of wheat, but the consecrated host—the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Our Lord. With Catholic eyes, we see, not black ink on white paper, but the Holy Bible, which is the inspired, written word of God. With Catholic eyes, we see, after the consecration, not mere wine, but the precious blood of Christ the King. That is perspective; that is seeing the eternal in time.

But we can be spiritually myopic; when it comes to what is holy, we can be near-sighted, almost blind. We can be so caught up in the trivial that we lose sight of the divine. We can be so consumed with the immediate that we forget or abandon the everlasting.

I want to illustrate this by using the lyrics of a song. I understand that this isn’t Schubert’s Ave Maria, or St. Thomas Aquinas’s Panis Angelicus, or Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus. It is, rather, a simple ballad by the French composer, Charles Aznavour, who may not even have understood how very Catholic were the words (and warnings) of his song:

I Didn’t See the Time Go By
Now as the wheel of life turns faster
Now as the seasons seem to fly
I see so many things at last, but I didn’t see the time go by

I’ve known delight, I’ve known disaster
The caviar, the humble pie
From the absurd to the sublime
I didn’t see the time go by

I didn’t see the years roll on
I didn’t know the road would bend
Refused to see when youth was gone
Pretending it might never end
Now, there is a price to pay
for every day I threw away

It seems I’ve wasted half a lifetime
within the blinking of an eye
I didn’t hear the midnight chime
I didn’t see the time go by

In stolen nights and brief romances
I kissed the girls and made them cry
While there were balconies to climb
I didn’t see the time go by

I was the guy with all the answers,
the halfway-truth, the little lie
So sure, so certain, in my prime
I didn’t see the time go by

I hit the heights, I bit the dirt
I left some wreckage in my way
I didn’t see that lies can hurt
I didn’t know how hearts can break

And now, they come to haunt my mind,
the lives I touched and left behind

I’ve sung a hundred songs of longing,
of sweet regret and hope run dry
I’ve searched for melody and rhyme,
but never saw how time can fly,
never saw the darkening sky

I was a minstrel of my day,
Who did not see the time go by.

St. Paul teaches that we should, in fact, “see the time go by”; that we should routinely examine our conscience; and that there is a very close connection between Confession and Communion; and that we should use our time wisely, and try to fill it more productively. In the traditional translation of St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, he tells us to “redeem the time” (5:16, Douay-Rheims).

When we redeem the time, we comprehend the importance of trusting in God; of realizing that we are mortal; of glorifying Our Lord by our lives; of recognizing that we are sinners in need of God’s grace; of treating others as we wish to be treated; of telling the truth; of building up treasure in Heaven, and not merely riches on earth; and of yearning for God, who is Love Itself.

The longing expressed in Charles Aznavour’s song is but a pale reflection of the yearning that is in everyone’s heart and mind and soul (see Psalms 42 and 63). In German, the word is “Sehnsucht”—a deep craving for something (really for Someone) that makes us whole. The regret, the sorrow, the confusion, the sense of failure in the Aznavour song—all these would have been, and yet still can be, cured by cognizance of, and commitment to, knowing, loving, and serving God. Italy’s greatest poet, Dante, told us, after all, that “In God’s will is our peace.”

We are prideful and unreflective people, but, with “amazing grace,” as another composer (John Newton) told us, we who were blind can now see, and we come to understand that the time which passes is not ours, but God’s. We are not minstrels of our day, but singers of eternal joy to the God who loved us to His own death. Read the source: http://www.hprweb.com/2017/03/homilies-for-april-2017/

Reflection 8 – Jesus is Lord of all

I entered seminary right out of college, in August of 2004. After graduation in May, I went to work for a few months with a company I had worked for in high school. My task for those few months was delivering mail at a sprawling factory which also had many business offices. There was a lot of down time between mail arrival and delivery in the morning and the same routine in the afternoon. I usually spent the in between time reading. About a month and a half into the job, one of the other mail room workers asked me a question, and it is a question I have often pondered ever since: “Why do you do all that reading? You’re just gonna die anyway.” It was a charming mail room.

If you get right down to it, I suppose the same despairing question could be asked about many more things than reading. What is the point of it all if we know with certainty that all of it will come to an end? I don’t think my co-worker was intending to get very philosophical, but her question, phrased as it was, called into doubt a lot more than my choice of the way to spend my free time.

There are a lot of problems in our world, and many of them are brought into heightened relief during a presidential campaign year as candidates seem to do all that they can to remind us of how terrible everything is, and how they are the one to fix it. I’m sure many of us have been tempted to think that “if I were in charge” or “if I won the lottery,” then all of these problems, these issues, theses difficulties would be fixed. Even the devil tried his damned hand at tempting our Lord with the same power to make the problems go away:

Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence, and he said to him, “All these I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me.”

But the question from the mail room remains: “Why even take on the ruling of the kingdoms of the world? You’re just gonna die anyway.”

And this is where our Lord showed us in the face of temptation on top of that very high mountain and in the face of despair in the Gospel today that He came to do something so much more than merely assume the rule of kingdoms, to merely fix problems, to merely be one more actor in the passing stage of life. He came to bring us God, even into the very depths of where it seems God has abandoned us.

At this, Jesus said to him, “Get away, Satan! It is written: The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.”

Look today at how Jesus chooses to worship and serve the Lord our God. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the one who did not come to be served, but to serve. He does not take up residence on top of that very high mountain or in the palaces of any one of those kingdoms shown to Him. He rather goes down to the very depths of meaninglessness, death itself, and weeps at the sorrow that surrounds Him. Yes, we are gonna die anyway, and our Lord did not excuse Himself from confronting that reality in all of its power.

Rather than standing on a very high mountain and looking down on the world, our Lord descends into the depths of our sorrow, and, raising His eyes from those very depths He says, “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.” In worshiping the Lord, our God, His Father, and serving Him alone, Jesus Christ shines the light into the dark meaninglessness into which our fallen world has been plunged. He has brought us God, and if we are willing to let our our hearts lose their hardness, if we are willing to drop our cynicism, if we are willing to open our eyes to the light, we will see that He is the Resurrection and the Life.

We are now rapidly approaching the end of Lent. Next week is already Palm Sunday. We will see the crowds cheering, then in the blink of an eye, they’ll be calling for His crucifixion. Remember, the devil showed Jesus the heights of his dominion and our Lord did not take the bait. Next week, we will enter into the Passion, when the devil came back at a more opportune time, and as we know, our Lord defeated the accuser of our brothers once again. No matter what the devil promises, it will come to an end. No matter what the devil threatens to throw at us, that too will pass. The powerful love of Jesus, however, is eternal, powerful, death defying. Jesus is Lord of all; may we never be parted from Him. – Read the source: https://www.hprweb.com/2020/02/homilies-for-march-2020/

Reflection 9 – Unfailing Love

[Jesus] stayed two more days in the place where He was. –John 11:6

Why does God wait when we plead for His swift response?

When Jesus’ good friend Lazarus lay desperately ill, He was told about it by Lazarus’ two sisters. They must have hoped He would come immediately. But in John 11:5-6 we read, “Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was.” While Jesus lingered, Lazarus died.

At times it is very difficult for us to reconcile God’s perfect love with His perfect timing. We may struggle to understand why He would delay when His intervention could save those we love. Like Martha and Mary, we tell Jesus, in effect, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died” (vv.21,32).

No one involved in this situation could imagine the miracle Jesus would perform. Nor could they fathom what He wanted to teach them—that He is “the resurrection and the life” for all who believe (v.25).

We may never fully understand why God waits when we plead with Him to act swiftly. But when the mystery of His timing remains hidden, we can cling to the certainty of His matchless wisdom and His unfailing love.  — David C. McCasland

O God, make me one of those rarest of souls
Who willingly wait for Thy time;
My impatient will must be lost in Thine own,
And Thy will forever be mine. —Bowser

When we can’t see God’s hand, we can trust His heart(Source: Our Daily Bread, RBC Ministries).

Reflection 10 – Pressures And Priorities

Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. –Matthew 6:33

While visiting a friend’s office, I noticed that the standard In-Out baskets had been replaced by a five-tiered set of trays labeled Critical, Urgent, Important, Back-burner, Long-term. Those trays reminded me that unless I have God’s perspective each day, pressures will always determine my priorities.

John 11:1-7 reminds us of how radically different God’s sense of urgency is from our own. Notice the chain of events: Lazarus was sick. His two sisters, Mary and Martha, sent word of his illness to Jesus. Then we see two seemingly incompatible statements: “Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was” (vv.5-6).

A dying man–a delaying Lord. Jesus’ priorities were determined not by pressure but by perfect communion with His heavenly Father.

“But I’m not Jesus,” we are quick to say. “I drive the freeways and don’t have enough hours in the day.” But Christ calls us to consult Him in every urgency and emergency, to listen for His wise direction, and to make time for the truly important things of life.

What priorities need our attention today?  — David C. McCasland

Thinking It Over
What types of pressures tend to confuse my priorities? Am I giving adequate time to my relationships with Christ, with my family, with my friends?

Focusing on Christ puts everything else in perspective(Source: Our Daily Bread, RBC Ministries).

Reflection 11 – Jesus, Man Of Faith

This sickness is . . . for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it. –John 11:4

Jesus laid aside the privileges and glory of His deity when He became a man. As a result, He had to face life’s trials and tests just as we do (Phil. 2:5-8). Like us, He had to exercise trust in God His Father.

I see this in the story about Lazarus. Jesus deliberately delayed departing for Bethany when He heard that Lazarus was sick. By waiting, He was exercising faith in His Father’s wisdom and power. He knew it was His Father’s will that Lazarus die so that God would be glorified (Jn. 11:4).

Because of His faith, Jesus returned to a place where an attempt had been made on His life (v.8). And even though He had never restored to life a person who had been buried, He declared confidently, “I go that I may wake him up” (v.11).

His disciples might have wondered why Jesus didn’t heal Lazarus before he died. Why go into dangerous territory when He had the power to perform miracles from a distance? (Mt. 8:5-13). But Jesus didn’t question His Father’s leading. He went forward with perfect trust in His wisdom.

Although we may not see clearly the end result of the trials we face, we can have confident faith in our heavenly Father. We can trust God to glorify Himself and to work out His good purposes through us.  — Herbert Vander Lugt

God, give me that faith of a little child!
A faith that will look to Thee–
That never will falter and never fail,
But follow Thee trustingly. –Showerman

Faith focuses on God instead of life’s problems(Source: Our Daily Bread, RBC Ministries).

Reflection 12 – Death Cannot Divide Us

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.” —John 11:25

Although writers and philosophers have done their best to marshal weighty arguments in favor of life after death, they have not succeeded in bringing comfort to aching, anxious, questioning hearts.

Jesus, however, does not fail to satisfy us. He brings forth no philosophical arguments. He does not try to prove the reasonableness of immortality; He simply declares it! He speaks of what He knows, and answers with the authority of heaven: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live” (John 11:25). This resurrection has two aspects. The bodies of believers will be raised, and their spirits will also live on in heaven.

What does this mean for grieving Christians whose believing loved ones have died? Death does not sever our love for them, for love belongs to the spirit and not to the body. And when those we love go on a long journey, their thoughts can span the distance as though it were a step, and their love enfolds us as though they stood beside us. So it is today with our dear departed ones.

Are you sorrowing over one who has been called to heaven? Jesus promises that we will be reunited one day, when God gives us back our precious loved ones.  — M.R. De Haan

When from the dead God raised His Son
And called Him to the sky,
He gave our souls a living hope
That they should never die!  —Watts

Christ has replaced the dark door of death with the shining gate of life(Source: Our Daily Bread, RBC Ministries).

Reflection 13 – Your Never-Dying Friend

He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. –John 11:25-26

A man who wrote to me frequently always signed his letters: “Your never-dying friend.” He believed that his strong faith in Christ would keep him alive until Jesus returned. He based this belief on his interpretation of Jesus’ words, “Whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die” (Jn. 11:26). I haven’t heard from him for a long time, so I assume he has died. If so, he is in heaven and now knows that his understanding of that verse was incorrect.

When Jesus spoke those words, He had in mind two kinds of death: physical (separation of the soul-spirit from the body) and spiritual (eternal separation from God). Before we receive Jesus as our personal Savior, all of us are “dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1). But when we trust Him, we become spiritually alive. Jesus said that everyone who believes in Him “has passed from death into life” (Jn. 5:24). When believers die, their conscious relationship with God continues uninterrupted because they are spiritually alive.

We who have trusted Christ as our Savior can rest assured that we will never experience eternal separation from God. In that sense, then, it would be appropriate to sign our letters with the words: “Your never-dying friend.”  — Herbert Vander Lugt

No condemnation now I dread,
I am my Lord’s and He is mine;
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness divine. –C. Wesley

Born once, die twice. Born twice, die once(Source: Our Daily Bread, RBC Ministries).

Reflection 14 – His Hand, His Heart

I have trusted in Your mercy . . . . I will sing to the Lord. –Psalm 13:5-6

Sometimes God doesn’t grant our prayer requests right away. After a while we begin to feel like the psalmist who said, “How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever?” (Psalm 13:1).

I remember feeling like that on one occasion when I had come to God, confessed my sin, and asked for forgiveness and a renewed sense of joy. It seemed as if God’s ears were closed to my cry. Only after continuing to pray and wait for a long time did I regain the joy that I had sought.

In John 11, we read that Mary and Martha called for Jesus to come because their brother Lazarus was very sick (vv.1-44). The Lord delayed and Lazarus died. When Jesus finally did come, however, He gave them a whole new appreciation of His love and power.

Why do you suppose God often delays His answers or denies our requests? I think the answer is this: When God withholds His hand, He wants us to look to His heart. In other words, He wants us to learn more about His goodness and His love, and to trust Him to do what is best.

If He’s withholding an answer to a request that is very important to you, just be patient. Keep asking and believing. He may want you to look at His heart—and to gain a new appreciation for His wisdom and love.  — David C. Egner

And since He bids me seek His face,
Believe His Word and trust His grace,
I’ll cast on Him my every care,
And wait for thee, sweet hour of prayer. —Walford

When God withholds His hand, trust His heart(Source: Our Daily Bread, RBC Ministries).

Reflection 15 – Shared Tears

Weep with those who weep. —Romans 12:15

A story is told about a little boy with a big heart. His next-door neighbor was an older gentleman whose wife had recently died. When the youngster saw the elderly man crying, he climbed up onto his lap and simply sat there.

Later, his mother asked the boy what he had said to their saddened neighbor. “Nothing,” the child replied. “I just helped him cry.”

Sometimes that is the best thing we can do for people who are facing profound sorrow. Often, our attempts to say something wise and helpful are far less valuable than just sitting next to the bereaved ones, holding their hand, and crying with them.

One of the ways we can help our fellow believers is to “weep with those who weep” (Rom. 12:15). Jesus demonstrated that principle when He visited Mary and Martha after Lazarus died. Sensing the depths of Mary’s despair over her brother Lazarus’ death, Jesus shared her grief by weeping (Jn. 11:35). Bystanders took note and said, “See how He loved him!” (v.36).

Sometimes the best thing we can do for those who are traveling life’s most sad and lonely road is to “help them cry.” Jesus showed us that it’s important to share another’s tears. Is there anyone who needs your tears today?  — Dave Branon

A heartfelt tear can show our love
As words can never do;
It says, “I want to share your pain—
My heart goes out to you.” —DJD

A sorrow shared is a sorrow halved. —Shakespeare(Source: Our Daily Bread, RBC Ministries).

Reflection 16 – Comfort For Today

Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. –Matthew 28:20

Over the last 50 years I have often reminded bereaved people of the wonderful truth that a glorious resurrection awaits all who believe on Jesus Christ. But sometimes grieving people are so overwhelmed with their loss that they cannot rejoice in the prospect of a far-off-in-the-future reunion.

In John 11, we read about Martha’s struggle between her feelings and what she knew to be true. She was grieving because her brother Lazarus had died. When Jesus spoke with her, she told Him that she believed in a future day of resurrection. But then Jesus took her a step further and helped her to find comfort by focusing on Him rather than just on a future event. He declared, “I am the resurrection and the life” (v.25). This led her to confess her faith in Him (v.27). Her new focus on Him must have helped her because she then went to her sister Mary and told her to come to Jesus (v.28).

It’s wonderful to know that because Jesus died for our sins and rose from the grave we can look forward to a day of resurrection. But it’s even more comforting to know and trust the One who is the resurrection and the life. He is present with us today to comfort, reassure, and strengthen us through all our circumstances (Mt. 28:20).  — Herbert Vander Lugt

I’ve been through the valley of weeping,
The valley of sorrow and pain;
But the God of all comfort was with me,
At hand to uphold and sustain. –Anon.

The coming King is our present companion (Source: Our Daily Bread, RBC Ministries).

Reflection 17 – Death Cannot Divide Us

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.” —John 11:25

Although writers and philosophers have done their best to marshal weighty arguments in favor of life after death, they have not succeeded in bringing comfort to aching, anxious, questioning hearts.

Jesus, however, does not fail to satisfy us. He brings forth no philosophical arguments. He does not try to prove the reasonableness of immortality; He simply declares it! He speaks of what He knows, and answers with the authority of heaven: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live” (John 11:25). This resurrection has two aspects. The bodies of believers will be raised, and their spirits will also live on in heaven.

What does this mean for grieving Christians whose believing loved ones have died? Death does not sever our love for them, for love belongs to the spirit and not to the body. And when those we love go on a long journey, their thoughts can span the distance as though it were a step, and their love enfolds us as though they stood beside us. So it is today with our dear departed ones.

Are you sorrowing over one who has been called to heaven? Jesus promises that we will be reunited one day, when God gives us back our precious loved ones.  — M.R. De Haan

When from the dead God raised His Son
And called Him to the sky,
He gave our souls a living hope
That they should never die!  —Watts

Christ has replaced the dark door of death with the shining gate of life (Source: Our Daily Bread, RBC Ministries).

Reflection 18 – Two Roses At Easter

I am the resurrection and the life. –John 11:25

Two roses were on the Communion table in our church on Easter Sunday morning. As I looked at them, my heart was filled with joy.

The red rose signified the birth of little Brian, who had come into the world on Good Friday. And on this particular Sunday we were celebrating the gift of this new life.

The yellow rose represented a new spiritual life. On the previous Wednesday evening, Sandra, a sixth-grader, had trusted Christ as her Savior at the youth group meeting. What made this significant was that she had received a gift distributed by our church at Christmastime to needy families. As a result, Sandra had begun coming regularly to our church. When she heard the gospel that Wednesday, she put her trust in Christ as her Savior and was born again.

As we celebrated Easter that morning, I couldn’t help but think of those two new lives. Not only is the risen Savior the Creator of physical life (Col. 1:16), He is also the Originator of new spiritual life because of His sacrificial death and His triumph over the grave. His resurrection gives meaning to life here and now, and it assures us that someday we will receive a new “spiritual body” (1 Cor. 15:44).

Let’s rejoice today in Christ’s resurrection!  — David C. Egner

The wonder of a newborn child–
It fills the heart with pride and joy;
But Christ arose to give new life
That even death cannot destroy. –DJD

Christ’s resurrection is cause for our celebration (Source: Our Daily Bread, RBC Ministries).

Reflection 19 – You are my sunshine

Love is stronger than death. So we are told in the striking words of Ezekiel: “I will open your graves.” So we are told by St. Paul: “The one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also.” And so we are told in the very human and powerful story of Lazarus returned from the dead. Each of the three readings today brings home the truth that love is stronger than death. In that light, let me share three true stories with you today.

Like all good parents, when Karen and her husband found out that another baby was on the way, they did what they could to help their three-year-old son, Michael, prepare for a new sibling. They found out the baby was going to be a girl, and so day after day, night after night, they gather Michael in their arms, and Michael sings to his sister in Mommy’s tummy. He sings the only song he knows, “You are my sunshine.” He sings it day after day, night after night.

The pregnancy progresses normally for Karen, an active member in her church. Then the labor pains come: every five minutes, every minute. But complications arise during delivery. Hours of labor; would a C-section be required? Finally Michael’s little sister is born, but she is in serious condition. With its siren howling in the night, the ambulance rushes the infant to the neonatal intensive care unit at St. Mary’s Hospital.

The days inch by. The little girl gets worse. The pediatric specialist tells the parents, “There is very little hope. Be prepared for the worst.” Karen and her husband contact a local cemetery about a burial plot. They had fixed up a special room in their home for the new baby; now they plan a funeral. Michael keeps begging his parents to let him see his sister. “I want to sing to her,” he pleads.

Week two in intensive care: it looks as if a funeral will come before the week is over. Michael keeps nagging his parents about singing to his sister, but children are not allowed in the ICU. Finally, Karen makes up her mind. She will take Michael to the hospital whether they like it or not, figuring that if he doesn’t see his sister now, he may never see her alive.

So she dresses Michael in an oversized scrub suit and marches him over to the ICU. He looks like a walking laundry basket, but the head nurse recognizes him as a child and bellows, “Get that kid out of here now! No children are allowed!” The mother instinct rises up strong in Karen, and this usually mild-mannered lady glares steely-eyed into the nurse’s face, her lips a firm line. “He is not leaving until he sings to his sister!” Karen tows Michael to his sister’s bedside. He gazes at the tiny infant losing the battle to live, and he begins to sing. In the pure-hearted voice of a three-year-old, Michael sings: “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy when skies are gray….”

Instantly, the baby girl responds. Her pulse rate becomes calm and steady. Keep on singing, Michael! “You never know, dear, how much I love you. Please don’t take my sunshine away.” The baby’s ragged, strained breathing becomes as smooth as a kitten’s purr. Keep on singing, Michael! “The other night, dear, as I lay sleeping, I dreamt I held you in my arms….” Michael’s little sister relaxes as rest–healing rest–seems to sweep over her. Keep on singing, Michael! Tears conquer the face of the bossy head nurse. Karen glows. “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine….Please don’t take my sunshine away.”

Funeral plans are scrapped. The next day–the very next day–the little girl is well enough to go home!

In an article about this incident, Woman’s Day magazine called it “the miracle of a brother’s song.” Karen called it a miracle of God’s love. The medical staff simply called it a miracle. We call it the Lazarus story all over again. Love is stronger than death.

Some years ago, then-Vice-President George Bush spoke at a prayer breakfast. He told of his trip to Russia to represent the United States at the funeral of Leonid Brezhnev. The funeral was as precise and stoic as the communist regime. No tears were seen and no emotion displayed–with one exception.

Mr. Bush told of how Brezhnev’s widow was the last person to witness the body before the coffin was closed. For several seconds, she stood at the side of the coffin. Then, in atheistic, communist Russia, she reached down and traced the sign of the cross on her husband’s chest. In the hour of her husband’s death she went not to Lenin, nor Karl Marx, nor Khrushchev. In the hour of death she turned to a Nazarene carpenter who had lived two thousand years ago, a man who had dared to cry out, “Lazarus, come forth!”

Finally, I want to tell you this story about my niece, who teaches brain-injured children. She really does a lot of wonderful things with them. One of my most poignant memories of her and the children was when she had her class stage a production of My Fair Lady.

My niece gave the lead role to a little girl in a wheelchair. In so doing, it never occurred to my niece that the audience–so conditioned by our self-imposed boundaries of what is possible and not possible–would weep, myself among them, when the little girl rolled herself across the stage singing, “I could have danced all night.”

“Did I not say that if you believe you will see the glory of God?” These stories hearken back to something Jesus said: “If you, evil as you are, can give good things to those who ask you, how much more your Heavenly Father?” In other words, true stories such as I have just shared make credible the Lazarus story.

A little boy’s song which brought his sister back to life; Brezhnev’s widow marking the sign of the cross on her husband in a country that had outlawed religion; a crippled girl who innocently sang about dancing all night: if these things can happen on a mere human level, then how much more so with God? If such love as these stories attest to can indeed be present among us, why couldn’t a more powerful love make life, not death, the last word to be uttered?

If we, evil as we are, can sing “You are my sunshine,” why can’t God sing “Untie him and let him go?” If the sign of the cross can make its appearance at the highest levels of official disbelief, why can’t God say, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, even if he die, will live, and everyone who believes in me will never die?” If a crippled girl can “dance” and sing, why can’t God say, “Take away the stone?” If human love is fruitful, how much more so is God’s?

Michael’s song becomes Jesus’ song raised to new heights. The widow’s faith becomes Jesus’: “whoever believes in me will never die.” The crippled girl’s song becomes Jesus’ promise that we will all dance all night. Why is all this possible? The crowd had it right when they observed of Jesus, “See how he loved him.” (Source: Fr. William J. Bausch. The Word in and out of Season. Connecticut: Twenty-Third Publications, 2001, pp. 82-85).

Reflection 20 – To be a Christian is to be a man for others

When some major TV networks featured an Abu Sayaf footage a few years ago, there was much outrage and furor—as well as approval.  The TV footage showed machete-wielding Abu Sayaf rebels interrogating captured soldiers before chopping off their heads in an undetermined location at the Basilan jungles.  There was much criticism on Malacañang’s decision to release the tapes to the TV networks.  People were terribly upset, calling Malacañang insensitive and manipulative in gathering support to the holding of the Balikatan 02-1.  Others, however, favored the airing of the footage, saying that it embodies the truth about the Abu Sayaf atrocities.  Former President Arroyo herself, defending the decision to release to gory footage, declared that the people have the right to know.  But amid the mounting outrage as well as increasing support, a person who called himself “Jun” claimed that the machete-wielding man seen on TV was not an Abu, but he himself who was forced to do it, because if he did not, the Abu Sayafs would have beheaded him instead. He killed others so that he might live.

Today’s Gospel is about Jesus who is the exact opposite of “Jun”—Jesus died so that others may live.  But that is going ahead of the point of the narrative.  At first blush, it would seem that the story is about Lazarus.  But as one reads the story, he gradually notices that it leaves much to be desired.  For example, after Jesus raised him from the dead, did Lazarus live a normal life?  Did he die again?  Why is it that we do not hear about him in the subsequent events in the Gospel?  Truth is, these questions are irrelevant, because the story is not about Lazarus, but about Jesus.  In the previous Sundays, we noticed that Jesus performed signs—he performed acts of power that brings the reader who has faith to spiritual realities.  The water of Jacob’s well was a sign of the water of life, and the cure of the blind man was a sign of Jesus as giver of light.  In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus once again performs a sign—the seventh—to bring the mind and faith of the believer to another spiritual reality: Jesus is the giver of life.

But what is life, in the first place?  Does it simply mean a power that animates something or someone?  It may be noticed that the word “life” occurs 36 times in the Gospel of John, 13 in the Johannine Letters, and 17 in Revelation. Since it is found 107 times in the Johannine writings and 135 times in the entire New Testament, the concept is therefore relatively important.  But what does the term signify?  Of course, there are various meanings of the word.  Metaphorically speaking, for example, one might say that Jennifer is his life, or money in his life, or teaching is his life.  In the Johannine usage, however, life is what God himself and Jesus possess: “Indeed, just as the Father possesses life in himself, so has he granted it to his Son to have life in himself” (John 5:26).  Jesus has it from the Father: “Just as the Father who has life sent me, and I have life because of the Father…” (John 6:57).  Life is therefore the fellowship of the Father and the Son, and this fellowship cannot be destroyed: “Whoever believes in me, though he should die, will come to life, and whoever is alive and believes in me will never die” (John 11:26).  If we may attempt at a short description, we say that life is the experience of God in our lives, and this life is one of wholeness that is shared with others.  In this life there is integrity of body and soul, and there is fullness of joy.  In the letters of Paul, this seems to be akin to the indwelling of the Spirit: “You are not in the flesh, you are in the spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you” (Rom 8:9).

In today’s Gospel, Jesus says that anyone who believes in him will live (John 11:26).  This means that a person, even here on earth, can already share or possess this life of fellowship with God if he puts his faith in Jesus (1 John 1:3). And the seventh sign—the story of Lazarus—is meant to illustrate this teaching.  If Lazarus is Jesus’ close friend, he represents the Christian who believes in Jesus and, like Lazarus and his sisters, is loved by him.  But who does Jesus love?  According to John, he who keeps the commandments of love: “He who obeys the commandments he has from me is the man who loves me; and he who loves me will be loved by my Father.  I, too, will love him and reveal himself to him” (John 14:21).  John categorically states that Jesus loves Lazarus (John 11:3), and therefore one can assume that Lazarus, while he was living, obeyed the commandments of love.  For this reason, Jesus gives him life.  Because life has not been taken away from him, though he died, Lazarus’ death is only a form of sleeping (John 11:43-44).  In this narrative, therefore, the physical death of Lazarus is simply meant to signify a spiritual reality.  It is a sign of who Jesus is—he is a giver of life.      At the same time, it is a sign of what he can do to those who believe in him—one does not die if he possesses the life of Jesus.

The story of Lazarus is narrated to challenge the hearer to believe in Jesus (John 11:26), and to believe in him is to love, for it is in love that faith is shown:  “His commandment is this: that we are to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and we are to love one another as he commanded us” (1 John 3:23).  By believing in him and loving him in the community of believers, the believer receives life from him.  But if he rejects Jesus and even hates him, one dies.  But if one receives life because he believes and loves, he is no longer in the realm of death, but even here on earth, he receives divine life: “That we have passed from death to life we know, because we love the brothers” (1 John 3:14b).  For John, this is the only kind of life that endures—others perish with death.  Life of wealth will go bankrupt, life of beauty will fade, life of popularity and fame wanes.  If there is anything that persists even after death has occurred, this is our fellowship with God.  And because this assumes that one loves his brothers, one cannot follow the example of a certain “Jun” who, if his story is true, blindly obeyed the Abu Sayaf to chop off the head of the soldiers, in order to have life. Such life would end soon in death.  If Christ is able to give life because he died, so is a Christian: he must offer his life for others so that others may live, and in that way, he will surely receive a hundredfold life. – Read the source: http://cbcpnews.net/cbcpnews/to-be-a-christian-is-to-be-a-man-for-others/

Reflection 21 – The happy truth about the Lenten journey

Lent is not about suffering and sacrifice. It’s a corridor to new life. Good Friday is not about evil and pain and death. It’s the door that Jesus opens to invite us into that new life.

Yes, suffering is part of the Lenten journey (which can be experienced at any time of the year). Yes, Lent includes the sacrifices of fasting and abstinence, almsgiving and extra time in church. But these are just vehicles for the trip.

God uses our sufferings (if we let him) to help us grow in compassion, persistence, and ministry. Our sacrifices help us learn discipline (which is discipleship) so that we can purify our will and grow stronger in holiness. But the trip is not the destination.

Lent is all about reaching the resurrection: renewing our faith, entering a new life free of old sins, reconciling damaged relationships, and living in the Spirit of God more than we ever did before.

Which day is more important to your faith: Good Friday or Easter Sunday? That horrid day on Calvary was absolutely necessary for Easter, but we are living in the resurrection! Catholics are an Easter people. This means that nothing bad can ever happen to us that will not be transformed into blessings if Jesus is the Lord of our lives.

He proved himself to be the Resurrection and the Life by displaying his power over life and death. Now he wants to prove it again — to you and to all those who are watching.

Questions for Personal Reflection:
What needs to be resurrected in your life? What will you do this week to accept the death of what has ended so that you can prepare for the new life that Jesus is preparing for you?

Questions for Community Faith Sharing:
1. We can personalize the first reading by understanding that God will open our graves (whatever is dead inside of us) and will place his Spirit of Life within us. How does the Holy Spirit help us discover healing and hope amidst our daily sufferings and dyings?

2. In the scripture from Romans, we are reminded again of the Holy Spirit within us. Since the Spirit is alive in you, what affect does this have on your Lenten journey? What is being purified, strengthened, and renewed?
3. In the Gospel, Jesus proves his power over death just before he enters Jerusalem and heads toward Calvary. How does this prove to you that your own sufferings and sacrifices will not lead to permanent disaster? – Read the source: http://gnm.org/good-news-reflections/?useDrDate=2017-04-01

Reflection 22 – Sunday of Lazarus

1) Eternal Love gives eternal life:

Last Sunday we meditated over the miracle of the blind man and we saw that Jesus opens our eyes to the complete reality to show us the new and free man in the image of God.

Today, Christ wants to open our eyes to the extreme reality in front of which all close their eyes: death. Our deepest desire is to not die. We have the desire for a full life and for immortality, but we know that it is not possible to save ourselves from the waters of death. In fact, it is as if, in order to get out of an eddy of water that drags us into the sea, each of us tries to lift himself up pulling his own hair. This absurd gesture cannot save us from going deeper into the sea of ​​life. We are saved only by reaching out for the Friend, who, taking our outstretched hand, pulls us out of the vortex of death and places us next to him in the ark of life.

Because of Christ, death is no longer the sad end of our lives. Our exodus does not end in a tomb that only serves to glorify death. Christ, whose death and resurrection is preceded by that of Lazarus, tells us that death is the dramatic passage to enter definitive life. Death is the door that the Cross, as a key, opens to let us in true and everlasting life.

Of course, it is hard to accept the logic of the Cross, which shows us that those who are loved by God are not forsaken by Him. Christ saves us with the Cross and not in spite of the Cross. If we look to the Cross with the eyes of faith, we will understand more and more the “logic” of this instrument of death that has become an instrument of life.

This is indeed a milestone for Christians: if you want to find a meaning in history and in life, you must learn to see the glory of God in the Cross of Christ. It is not possible otherwise. The Cross “opens” the Resurrection, anticipated -in a sense- by that one of Lazarus, which manifests the powerful love of God and shows that the death doesn’t have the last word. Ultimately it is God who is love and who gives life forever.

Those who accept and reciprocates this Love live already an eternal life. In short, the Lord does not give a cheap recipe to avoid death – we are limited, otherwise we would not exist. He wants instead to give us a new way of living our limitations, including the ultimate limit of death. The limit is not the negation of me; the limit is the place where I can enter into relationship with others and with the Other, thanks to which I can have a relationship of love and fellowship that never ends. When one lover says to his beloved “I love you”, he means “do not die”, but knows that this is only a strong desire. When God tells you “I love you”, this “Do not die” is a matter of fact and not a mere wish. With the resurrection of Christ, God, who is love, brings in his Kingdom of life the humanity who was a slave of the kingdom of death.

2) The “sign” of the resurrection of Lazarus.

In light of this premise we understand that the Gospel’s narration tells us about the resurrection of Lazarus not only as a great miracle, but as a “sign” of something else, of the eternal life that we ​​live right now and that death does not interrupt. What does the Lord want to give to us? Not a cheap recipe to avoid death – we are limited, otherwise we would not exist – He wants instead to give a new way of living our limitations, including the ultimate limit. The limit is not the negation of me; the limit is the place where I can get in relationship with the others and with the Other.

Eternal life, which is friendship with God who makes us live a life free from the lien of death because we live right now this relationship with Him and with others, is a life that already goes beyond death. It is an eternal relationship with the endless Love.

The resurrection of Lazarus is the last “sign” of Jesus before facing the passion and overcoming it on the Cross through his Resurrection. We can even say that it is the sign par excellence: Jesus is not just a healer, but “the resurrection and the life” for everyone. It is fair to say that the Resurrection of Christ is the center of the Gospel. The death and resurrection of Lazarus is the anticipated result that helps us to understand the death and resurrection of Jesus. Speaking of Lazarus’ death, Jesus said “it is a sleep”. The difference between sleep and death is that death is the end, sleep instead foreshadows the beginning of a new day. We could say that Christ’s death is not death, it is the prelude for returning to the Father and for giving life to the brothers.

The juxtaposition between Lazarus (that is us) and Jesus is evident in today’s Gospel passage. The story of Lazarus (and therefore us) is intertwined with that of Christ either because Lazarus is abandoned to death or because Jesus is abandoned to the cross and because the resurrection of Lazarus costs Him his life. The leaders of the people decide to kill him because he raised Lazarus. Life for life is for him resurrection at a high price.

The Redeemer, who said that there is no greater love than to lay down his life for the friends (see Jn 15:13), decides to go to his friend.

Jesus really loves[1] Lazarus and yet leaves him to die. Why? Each of us understands that this is the mystery of existence of us humans: a promise of life that seems retracted, a promise of God that seems to contradict itself. A disturbing mystery, although the Gospel tells us that Jesus wept in front of his friend’s death in the same way as he felt at loss in front of the imminence of His death on the Cross. Death, like the Cross, remains something incomprehensible: we are faced with a God who tells us to love one another and yet he seems to abandon us.

The mystery of the existence of man, loved by God and yet left to die, is reflected and magnified in the mystery of the Cross of Jesus. But it resolves if we look at the Cross with the real eyes and faith, because there are different way to see, and we can look to Christ on the Cross in two ways:

– with the look of no faith of those who will stop in front of the scandal, and see in the death of men and in the Cross of Christ the sign of failure.

– with the look of faith, which exceeds the scandal, and sees that the resurrection is shining in the Cross of Jesus and in the death of every man.

This is indeed a milestone for Christians: if you want to find sense in history and in life, we must learn to see the glory of God in the Cross of Christ. It is not possible otherwise. With this precise reference to the mystery of human existence – that is reflected, magnified and resolved in the mystery of the Cross of Christ – we can also conclude our reading. John has managed to turn the episode of Lazarus in a highly theological and even existential discourse, addressed to every person who has the courage to ask the question on the existence.

3) Jesus, resurrection to our lives, now and for eternity

The previous Sunday’s themes converge with successful synthesis in today liturgy: Jesus, the source of living water (third Sunday of Lent with the Gospel of the Samaritan woman) and light (Fourth Sunday of Lent with the Gospel of the blind man), is the one which gives life to those who believe in him (today’s Gospel).

The central theme of the Gospel of Lazarus is that of life. The “sign of life” is the final end of the baptismal journey. The Christian, consecrated in Baptism, lives the same life of Jesus, follows his destiny of death and resurrection, shares his meaning and in his heart has the hope of being able to be with his Lord forever. This life, which began with the baptismal consecration, is eternal and will never die.

How to have the experience of Lazarus today?

First of all by letting Christ, who still says today “Lazarus our friend has fallen asleep; but I go to awaken him”, getting closer to us. Jesus makes a startling revelation and uses the image of sleep to talk about death. The disciples, however, think of sleep as the beginning of a healing that pushes death away. For Jesus, this “back to life” is just a “sign” of the other life, which is divine and given to the believers. The disciples did not suspect anything and still think of the “return” in a life whose end is only postponed.

Secondly, let’s welcome with renewed faith the revelation of the resurrection: “Jesus said to Mary “Your brother will rise again. […] I am the resurrection and the life; who also believes in me shall live. “Jesus, before doing “the sign”, explains it and puts his message in a different level; Jesus is revealing the very meaning of his mission. The life that Jesus gives is not a return to the old life, but the gift of eternal life, the one that does not finish because he is life.

Finally, let’s pray with Christ, who lift up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you because you have heard me. I knew that you always listen, but I said this for the people around me, so that they may believe that you sent me. “Jesus thanks the Father not so much for the resurrection of Lazarus but for his own. With the same feelings of Christ, let’s walk with Him who takes us by the hand to lead us, during these holy days, on the cross and give us the resurrection.

Jesus is offered to God in our place. Death grabs the Son of God thinking to have won over God. But “God has prepared for her a poison pill: death eats it but eats its own end” (Anonymous Cristian writer) 

4) Virginity and resurrection.                                                                                                                  

I’d like to conclude these reflections on the resurrection with some thoughts about the testimony of the consecrated virgins. “The lives of these women are a transfer on Earth of the life of the angels, and a prophecy of life after the resurrection …” Rightly, virginity is called angelic virtues; St. Cyprian writing to the virgins says, “What we will be one day, you have already begun to be. You already possess in this world the glory of the resurrection; you pass through the world without suffering its contagion. If you preserve yourselves virgin and chaste, you are the equals of the angels of God “(De habitu virginum, 22: PL 4, 462). To souls, restless for a purer life or inflamed with the desire of the kingdom of heaven, virginity is offered ‘as a precious gem’, for which a man ‘sold everything he had and bought it’ (Mt 13, 46). “Those who are married and even those who are captives of vice, when they see the virgins, often admire the splendor of their transparent purity “(Pius XII, Sancta Virginitas – Consecrated virginity).

The Fathers of the Church insisted in saying that consecrated virginity is especially the image of the incorruptible God and the face of Christ, the Incarnate Word. For example, St. Ambrose of Milan says that consecrated virginity is the priesthood of chastity, “in which is not difficult to perceive a particular sensitivity of the human spirit, that already in the conditions of temporality seems to anticipate what man will share in the future resurrection “(St. John Paul II, General Audience of 10 March 1982)

Patristic Reading

Saint Augustine of Hyppo

Tractate XLIX.

1. Among all the miracles wrought by our Lord Jesus Christ, the resurrection of Lazarus holds a foremost place in preaching. But if we consider attentively who did it, our duty is to rejoice rather than to wonder. A man was raised up by Him who made man: for He is the only One of the Father, by whom, as you know, all things were made. And if all things were made by Him, what wonder is it that one was raised by Him, when so many are daily brought into the world by His power? It is a greater deed to create men than to raise them again from the dead. Yet He deigned both to create and to raise again; to create all, to resuscitate some. For though the Lord Jesus did many such acts, yet all of them are not recorded; just as this same St. Jn the evangelist himself testifies, that Christ the Lord both said and did many things that are not recorded;1 but such were chosen for record as seemed to suffice for the salvation of believers. Thou hast just heard that the Lord Jesus raised a dead man to life; and that is sufficient to let thee know that, were He so pleased, He might raise all the dead to life. And, indeed this very work has He reserved in His own hands till the end of the world. For while you have heard that by a great miracle He raised one from the tomb who had been dead four days, “the hour is coming,” as He Himself saith, “in the which all that are in the graves shall hearHisvoice, and shall come forth.” He raised one who was putrid, and yet in that putrid carcase there was still the form of limbs; but at the last day He will by a word reconstitute ashes into human flesh. But it was needful then to do only some such deeds, that we, receiving them as tokens of His power, may put our trust in Him, and be preparing for that resurrection which shall be to life and not to judgment. So, indeed, He saith, “The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.”2
2. We have, however, read in the Gospel of three dead persons who were raised to life by the Lord, and, let us hope, to some good purpose. For surely the Lord’s deeds are not merely deeds, but signs. And if they are signs, besides their wonderful character, they have some real significance: and to find out this in regard to such deeds is a somewhat harder task than to read or hear of them. We were listening with wonder, as at the sight of some mighty miracle enacted before our eyes, in the reading of the Gospel, how Lazarus was restored to life. If we turn our thoughts to the still more wonderful works of Christ, every one that believeth riseth again: if we all consider, and understand that more horrifying kind of death, every one who sinneth dies.3 But every man is afraid of the death of the flesh; few, of the death of the soul. In regard to the death of the flesh, which must certainly come some time, all are on their guard against its approach: this is the source of all their labor. Man, destined to die, labors to avert his dying; and yet man, destined to live for ever, labors not to cease from sinning. And when he labors to avoid dying, he labors to no purpose, for its only result will be to put off death for a while, not to escape it; but if he refrain from sinning, his toil will cease, and he shall live for ever. Oh that we could arouse men, and be ourselves aroused along with them, to be as great lovers of the life that abideth, as men are of that which passeth away! What will a man not do who is placed under the peril of death? When the sword was overhanging their heads, men have given up every means of living they had in reserve. Who is there that has not made an immediate surrender of all, to escape being slain? And, after all, he has perhaps been slain. Who is there that, to save his life, has not been willing at once to lose his means of living, and prefer a life of beggary to a speedy death? Who has had it said to him, Be off to sea if you would escape with your life, and has delayed to do so? Who has had it said to him, Set to work if you would preserve your life, and has continued a sluggard? It is but little that God requires of us, that we may live for ever: and we neglect to obey Him. God says not to thee, Lose all you have, that you may live a little time oppressed with toil; but, Give to the poor of what you have, that you may live always exempt from labor. The lovers of this temporal life, which is theirs, neither when, nor as long as they wish, are our accusers; and we accuse not ourselves in turn, so sluggish are we, so lukewarm about obtaining eternal life, which will be ours if we wish it, and will be imperishable when we have it; but this death which we fear, notwithstanding all our reluctance, will yet be ours in possession.
3. If, then, the Lord in the greatness of His grace and mercy raiseth our souls to life, that we may not die for ever, we may well understand that those three dead persons whom He raised in the body, have some figurative significance of that resurrection of the soul which is effected by faith: He raised up the ruler of the synagogue’s daughter, while still lying in the house;4 He raised up the widow’s young son, while being carried outside the gates of the city;5 and He raised up Lazarus, when four days in the grave. Let each one give heed to his own soul: in sinning he dies: sin is the death of the soul. But sometimes sin is committed only in thought. Thou hast felt delight in what is evil, thou hast assented to its commission thou hast sinned; that assent has slain thee but the death is internal, because the evil thought had not yet ripened into action. The Lord intimated that He would raise such a soul to life, in raising that girl, who had not yet been carried forth to the burial, but was lying dead in the house, as if sin still lay concealed. But if thou hast not only harbored a feeling of delight in evil, but hast also done the evil thing, thou hast, so to speak, carried the dead outside the gate: thou art already without, and being carried to the tomb. Yet such an one also the Lord raised to life. and restored to his widowed mother. If thou hast sinned, repent, and the Lord will raise thee up, and restore thee to thy mother Church. The third example of death is Lazarus. A grievous kind of death it is, and is distinguished as a habit of wickedness. For it is one thing to fall into sin, another to form the habit of sinning. He who falls into sin, and straightway submits to correction, will be speedily restored to life; for he is not yet entangled in the habit, he is not yet laid in the tomb. But he who has become habituated to sin, is buried, and has it properly said of him, “he stinketh;” for his character, like some horrible smell, begins to be of the worst repute. Such are all who are habituated to crime, abandoned in morals. Thou sayest to such an one, Do not so. But when wilt thou be listened to by one on whom the earth is thus heaped, who is breeding corruption, and pressed down with the weight of habit? And yet the power of Christ was not unequal to the task of restoring such an one to life. We know, we have seen, we see every day men changing the very worst of habits, and adopting a better manner of life than that of those who blamed them. Thou detestedst such a man: look at the sister of Lazarus herself (if, indeed, it was she who anointed the Lord’s feet with ointment, and wiped with her hair what she had washed with her tears), who had a better resurrection than her brother; she was delivered from the mighty burden of a sinful character. For she was a notorious sinner; and had it said of her, “Her many sins are forgiven her, for she has loved much.”6 We see many such, we know many: let none despair, but let none presume in himself. Both the one and the other are sinful. Let thine unwillingness to despair take such a turn as to lead thee to make choice of Him in whom alone thou mayest well presume.
4. So then the Lord also raised Lazarus to life. You have heard what type of character he represents; in other words, what is meant by the resurrection of Lazarus. Let us now, therefore, read over the passage; and as there is much in this lesson clear already, we shall not go into any detailed exposition, so as to take up more thoroughly the necessary points. “Now a certain man was sick, [named] Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and Martha, his sisters.” In the previous lesson you remember that the Lord escaped from the hands of those who sought to stone Him, and went away beyond Jordan, where Jn baptized.7 When the Lord therefore had taken up His abode there, Lazarus fall sick in Bethany, which was a town lying close to Jerusalem.
5. “But Mary was she who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore his sisters sent unto Him, saying.” We now understand whither it was they sent, namely, where the Lord was; for He was away, as you know, beyond the Jordan. They sent messengers to the Lord to tell Him that their brother was ill. He delayed to heal, that He might be able to raise to life. But what was the message sent by his sisters? “Lord, behold, he whom Thou lovest is sick.” They did not say, Come; for the intimation was all that was needed for one who loved. They did not venture to say, Come and heal him: they ventured not to say, Command there, and it shall be done here. And why not so with them, if on these very grounds the centurion’s faith was commended? For he said, “I am not worthy that Thou shouldest enter under my roof; but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.”8 No such words said these women, but only, “Lord, behold, he whom Thou lovest is sick.” It is enough that Thou knowest; for Thou art not one that loveth and forsaketh. But says some one, How could a sinner be represented by Lazarus, and be so loved by the Lord? Let him listen to Him, when He says, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”9 For had not God loved sinners, He would not have come down from heaven to earth.
6. “But when Jesus heard [that], He said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified.” Such a glorifying of Himself did not add toHis dignity, but benefited us. Hence He says, “is not unto death,” because even that death itself was not unto death, but rather unto the working of a miracle whereby men might be led to faith in Christ, and so escape the real death. And mark how the Lord, as it were indirectly, called Himself God, for the sake of some who deny that the Son is God. For there are heretics who make such a denial, that the Son of God is God. Let them hearken here: “This sickness” He says. “is not unto death, but for the glory of God.” For what glory? For the glory of what God? Hear what follows: “That the Son of God may be glorified.” “This sickness,” therefore, He says, “is not unto death. but for the glory of God, that the Son of God maybe glorified thereby.” By what? By that sickness.
7. “Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister Mary, and Lazarus.” The one sick, the others sad, all of them beloved: but He who loved them was both the Saviour of the sick, nay more, the Raiser of the dead and the Comforter of the sad. “When He heard therefore that he was sick, He abode then two days still in the same place.” They sent Him word: He abode where He was: and the time ran on till four days were completed. And not in vain, were it only that perhaps, nay that certainly, even the very number of days has some sacramental significance. “Then after that He saith again to His disciples, Let us go into Judea:” where He had been all but stoned, and from which He had apparently departed for the very purpose to escape being stoned. For as man He departed; but returned as if in forgetfulness of ’all infirmity, to show His power. “Let us go,” He said, “into Judea.”
8. And now see how the disciples were terrified at His words. “The disciples say unto Him, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone Thee, and goest Thou thither again? Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? “What means such. an answer? They said to Him, “The Jews of late sought to stone Thee, and goest Thou thither again” to be stoned? And the Lord, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? if any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world: but if he walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him.” He spoke indeed of the day, but to our understanding as if it were still the night. Let us call upon the Day to chase away the night, and illuminate our hearts with the light. For what did the Lord mean? As far as I can judge, and as the height and depth of His meaning breaks into light, He wished to argue down their doubting and unbelief. For they wished by their counsel to keep the Lord from death, who had come to die, to save themselves from death. In a similar way also, in another passage, St. Peter, who loved the Lord, but did not yet fully understand the reason of His coming, was afraid of His dying, and so displeased the Life, to wit, the Lord Himself; for when He was intimating to the disciples what He was about to suffer at Jerusalem at the hands of the Jews, Peter made reply among the rest, and said, “Far be it from Thee, Lord; pity Thyself: this shall not be unto Thee.” And at once the Lord replied, “Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.” And yet a little before, in confessing the Son of God, he had merited commendation: for he heard the words, “Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father who is in heaven.”10 To whom He had said, “Blessed art thou,” He now says, “Get thee behind me, Satan;” because it was not of himself that he was blessed. But of what then? “For flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father who is in heaven.” See, this is how thou art blessed, not from anything that is thine own, but from that which is mine. Not that I am the Father, but that all things which the Father hath are mine.11 But if his blessedness came from the Lord’s own working, from whose [working] came he to be Satan? He there tells us: for He assigned the reason of such blessedness, when He said, “Flesh and blood hath not revealedthisunto thee, but my Father who is in heaven:” that is the cause of thy blessedness. But that I said, “Get thee behind me, Satan, hear also its  For thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.” Let no one then flatter himself: in that which is natural to himself he is Satan, in that which is of God he is blessed. For all that is of his own, whence comes it, but from his sin? Put away the sin, which is thine own. Righteousness, He saith, belongeth unto me. For what hast thou that thou didst not receive?12 Accordingly, when men wished to give counsel to God. disciples to their Master, servants to their Lord, patients to their Physician, He reproved them by saying, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not.” Follow me, if ye would not stumble: give not counsel to me, from whom you ought to receive it. To what, then, refer the words, “Are there not twelve hours in the day”? Just that to point Himself out as the day, He made choice of twelve disciples. If I am the day, He says, and you the hours, is it for the hours to give counsel to the day? The day is followed by the hours, not the hours by the day. If these, then, were the hours, what in such a reckoning was Judas? Was he also among the twelve hours? If he was an hour, he had light; and if he had light, how was the Day betrayed by him to death? But the Lord, in so speaking, foresaw, not Judas himself, but his successor. For Judas, when he fell, was succeeded by Matthias, and the duodenary number preserved.13 It was not, then, without a purpose that the Lord made choice of twelve disciples, but to indicate that He Himself is the spiritual Day. Let the hours then attend upon the Day, let them preach the Day, be made known and illuminated by the Day, and by the preaching of the hours may the world believe in the Day. And so in a summary way it was just this that He said: Follow me, if ye would not stumble.

[1] This love is repeatedly emphasized and the Evangelist to designate it uses the Greek verb “agapo”, which indicates self-giving love, unconditional, selfless, and without seeking personal gain. – Read the source: https://zenit.org/articles/the-friend-gives-life-to-his-friend/

Reflection 23 – The Holy Spirit introduces us to the mystery of the resurrection of Christ

In the first two Lenten meditations we reflected on the Holy Spirit who leads us into all the truth about the person of Christ, causing him to be proclaimed as “Lord” and “true God.” In the last meditation we moved on from the being of Christ to the work of Christ, from his person to his action, and in particular the mystery of his redemptive death. Today, I propose that we meditate on the mystery of His Resurrection and of our resurrection.

St. Paul expressly attributes the resurrection of Jesus from the dead to the work of the Holy Spirit. He says that Christ was “designated Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead” (Rom 1:4). In Christ is the fulfillment of the great prophecy by Ezekiel about the Spirit who enters into the dry bones, raises them from their graves, and makes of this slain multitude “an exceedingly great host” of people resurrected to life and hope (see Ezek 37:1-14).

But this is not the line I want to pursue in this meditation. Making the Holy Spirit the main inspirer of all theology (which is the intent of what is called “Theology of Third Article!”) does not mean forcing the Holy Spirit into every assertion, mentioning him at every turn. This would not be in the nature of the Paraclete who, like light, illuminates everything while remaining, so to speak, in the background himself as though behind the scenes. More than speaking “about” the Holy Spirit, the Theology of the Third Article involves speaking “in” the Holy Spirit, with all that this simple change of preposition entails.

1. The Resurrection of Christ: The Historical Approach

Let us first of all say something about the resurrection of Christ as a “historical” fact. Can we define the resurrection as an historical event in the normal sense of this word—something that really happened—insofar as history is in contrast to myth and legend? To express it in the words of the recent debate: Is Jesus risen only in the kerygma, that is, in the proclamation of the Church (as someone has affirmed in the wake of Rudolf Bultmann), or did he also rise in reality and in history? In other words, is he, the person of Jesus, truly risen, or is it only his cause that has risen—in the metaphoric sense in which “rising again” means the survival or the victorious reemergence of an idea after the death of the one who proposed it?

Let us see, then, in what sense there can be an historical approach to the resurrection of Christ. Not because some of us here need to be persuaded about that, but, as Luke says at the beginning of his Gospel, “that you may know the truth concerning the things of which you have been informed” (Lk 1:4) and concerning what we transmit to others.

The faith of the disciples, with a few exceptions (John and the devout women), does not hold up under the test of Jesus’ tragic end. After his passion and death, a pall is cast over everything. The disciples’ inner state is revealed through the words of the two disciples on their way to Emmaus: “We had hoped that he was the one . . . . It is now the third day since this happened” (Lk 24:21). Faith is at a stalemate. The case of Jesus is considered closed.

Now—still from the historians’ point of view—let us move ahead to a year, or even to a few weeks later. What do we find? A group of men, the same ones who were with Jesus, who are now repeating loudly that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, the Lord, the Son of God, that he is alive and will come to judge the world. The case of Jesus is not only reopened, but in a brief amount of time it has also shifted to an absolute and universal dimension. This man is of interest now not only to the people of Israel but to all human beings of all times. “The very stone which the builders rejected,” says St. Peter, “has become the head of the corner” (1 Pet 2:7), that is, the beginning of a new humanity. From now on, whether people know it or not, there is no other name under heaven given to human beings by which they can be saved except the name of Jesus of Nazareth (see Acts 4:12).

What caused such a change in these same men who had earlier denied Jesus or run away but who now declare these things publicly, who establish churches, and who even allow themselves to be imprisoned, whipped, and killed for him? They all answer in unision: “He is risen! We have seen him!” The final act the historian can perform, before yielding the floor to faith, is to verify this response.

The resurrection is an historical event in a very particular sense. It is at the border of history, like the line that divides the sea from the land. It is inside and outside of history at the same time. With it, history opens itself up to what is beyond history, to eschatology. It therefore represents, in a certain sense, a break with history and a move beyond it, just like the creation did at its beginning. This makes the resurrection an event that cannot be attested to and accessed in itself by our mental categories that are wholly tied to our experience of time and space. No one was actually present at the moment Jesus was resurrected. No one can say they saw Jesus being resurrected but only that they saw him once he was risen. But they saw his empty tomb.

The resurrection, therefore, is known a posteriori, after the fact. It is like the physical presence of the Word in Mary afterward that demonstrates his Incarnation; likewise it is the spiritual presence of Christ in the community afterward, attested by his appearances, that demonstrates he has risen. This explains why no secular historian says a word about his resurrection. Tacitus, who does record the death of a certain “Christus” at the time of Pontius Pilate,[1] is silent about the resurrection. That event had no relevance or meaning except for people who experienced its aftermath within the community.

In what sense, then, do we speak of an historical approach to the resurrection? Two facts are offered for consideration to historians that allow them to speak about the resurrection: first, the sudden and inexplicable faith of the disciples, a faith so tenacious that it withstands even the test of martyrdom; second, the explanation of such a faith left to us by those involved. An eminent exegete has written, “In the hour of crisis [after Jesus was crucified] the disciples held no . . . assurance [of a resurrection]. They fled (Mark 14:50), and gave up Jesus’ cause for lost (Luke 24:19-21). Something must have happened in between, which in a short time not only produced a complete reversal of their attitude but also enabled them to engage in renewed activity and to found the primitive Christian community. This ‘something’ is the historical kernel of the Easter faith.”[2]

It has been correctly observed that if the historical and objective character of the resurrection is denied, the birth of faith and of the Church would be a mystery that is even more inexplicable than the resurrection itself: “The assumption that the whole great course of Christian history is a massive pyramid balanced upon the apex of some trivial occurrence is surely a less probable one than that the whole event, the occurrence plus the meaning inherent in it, did actually occupy a place in history at least comparable with that which the New Testament assigns to it.”[3]

What then is the ultimate point that historical research can reach concerning the resurrection? We can find it in the words of the disciples at Emmaus. Some disciples on the morning of Easter went to Jesus’ tomb and found that things were just as the women had reported when they were there earlier, “but him they did not see” (Lk 24:24). History also goes to Jesus’ tomb and must ascertain that things were as the witnesses had said. But him, the Risen One, history does not see. It is not enough to ascertain the facts historically; there is also a need to see the Risen One, and history cannot offer that; only faith can.[4] A man running from the mainland who reaches the shore of the sea has to stop abruptly; he can continue to push forward with his gaze, but not with his feet.

2. The Apologetic Significance of the Resurrection

As we move from history to faith, the manner of speaking about the resurrection also changes. The language of the New Testament and the liturgy of the Church is assertive, authoritative, and does not base itself on dialectical demonstrations. “In fact Christ has been raised from the dead” (1 Cor 15:20), Paul says. Period. We are now on the level of faith and no longer on the level of historical argument. It is what we call the kerygma. “Scimus Christum surrexisse a mortuis vere,” says the Liturgy on the day of Easter: “We know that Christ is truly risen from the dead.” Not only do we believe it, but having believed it, we also know it to be true, and we are certain of it. The surest proof of the resurrection comes after we have believed, not before, because it is at that point that we experience that Jesus is alive.

But what exactly is the resurrection from the point of view of faith? It is the testimony of God about Jesus Christ. God the Father, who had already attested to Jesus of Nazareth during his life through signs and wonders, has now set a definitive seal to his endorsement of him by raising him from the dead. St. Paul, in his discourse in Athens, formulates it this way: “By raising him from the dead, God has given assurance about him to all men” (see Acts 17:31). The resurrection is God’s powerful “yes,” his “Amen” to the life of his Son Jesus.

The death of Christ was not in itself sufficient to testify to the truth of his cause. Many people—and we have tragic proof of that these days—die for mistaken causes, and even for evil causes. Their deaths have not made their cause true; their deaths only prove that they believed in its truth. The death of Christ is not a guarantee of his truth but of his love, since “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (Jn 15:13).

Only the resurrection, therefore, constitutes the seal of Christ’s authentic divinity. This is why Jesus responds one day to those who asked for a sign, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (see Jn 2:18ff), and in another place he says, “No sign shall be given to this generation except the sign of Jonah,” who, after three days in the belly of the whale, saw daylight again (see Matt 16:4). Paul is right to build the whole edifice of faith on the resurrection as its foundation: “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God. . . . We are of all men most to be pitied” (1 Cor 15, 14-15, 19). We understand why St. Augustine can say that “the faith of Christians is in the resurrection of Christ”; everyone, even pagans, believes that Christ died, but only Christians believe that he is risen, and there is no Christian who does not believe that.[5]

3. The “mystic” significance of the Resurrection of Christ

Up to now the apologetic significance of Christ’s resurrection aimed at establishing the authenticity of Christ’s mission and the legitimacy of his claim to divinity. We need to add to this a wholly new significance that we could call the mystic or salvific aspect in what concerns us believers. The resurrection of Christ concerns us and is a mystery “for us” because it is the basis of hope for our own resurrection from the dead:

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit which dwells in you. (Rom 8:11)

Faith in a life in the otherworld appears in a clear and explicit way only toward the end of the Old Testament. The Second Book of Maccabees constitutes its most developed testimony: one of the seven brothers killed under Antiochus exclaims that after they die, “the King of the universe will raise us up to an everlasting renewal of life” (2 Mac 7:9; see 2:1-14). But this faith does not come suddenly of nowhere; it is vitally rooted in previous biblical revelation and represents its natural conclusion and its more mature fruit, so to speak.

Two certainties in particular led the people of Israel to this conclusion: certainty about the omnipotence of God and certainty about the insufficiency and injustice of earthly recompense. It appeared more and more evident—especially after the experience of the exile—that the fate of good people in this world is such that, without the hope of a different reward for the righteous after death, it would be impossible not to fall into despair. In this life, in fact, the same things happen to the righteous and the wicked, whether it be happiness or misfortune. Ecclesiastes represents the clearest expression of this bitter conclusion (see Eccles 7:15).

Jesus’ thinking on this issue is expressed in his discussion with the Sadducees on the fate of a woman who had had seven husbands (see Lk 20:27-38). In keeping with the most ancient biblical revelation, the Mosaic revelation, the Sadducees had not accepted the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead and considered it an undue innovation. Referring to the Mosaic law concerning Levirate marriage (see Deut 25, where a widowed woman without sons is to marry her brother-in-law), they speculate about the hypothetical case of a woman who married seven husbands consecutively based on that law. At the end, confident of having demonstrated the absurdity of resurrection, they ask, “In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be?” (Lk 20:33).

Without shifting away from the Mosaic law, the ground chosen by his adversaries, Jesus reveals in a few words first the error of the Sadducees and then corrects it; next, he gives the most profound and most convincing foundation for faith in the resurrection. Jesus gives his opinion about two things: the manner and the fact of resurrection. As for the fact that there will be a resurrection of the dead, Jesus recalls the episode of the burning bush when God identifies himself as “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” If God identifies himself as “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” when these three men have been dead for generations and if, in addition, “God is the God of the living and not of the dead,” then it means that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are alive somewhere!

However, more than on his response to the Sadducees, faith in the resurrection is based on the fact of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. “If Christ is preached as raised from the dead,” Paul exclaims, “how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised!” (1 Cor 15:12-13). It is absurd to think of a body whose head reigns gloriously in heaven and whose body decays forever on earth or ends in nothingness.

Furthermore, Christian faith in the resurrection of the dead responds to the most instinctive desire of the human heart. St. Paul says that we do not want to be “unclothed” of our bodies but to be “further clothed,” that is, we do not want only one part of our being—our soul—to go on living but all of who we are, soul and body. Therefore, we do not want our mortal bodies to be destroyed but to be “swallowed up by life,” and to “put on immortality” (see 2 Cor 5:1-5; 15:51-53).

In this life we have not only a promise of eternal life, we also have the “first fruits” and the “first installment.” We should never translate the Greek word arrabon used by St. Paul about the Spirit (see 2 Cor 1:22; 5:5; Ephes 1:14) as “pledge” (pignus) but only as “first installment” or “deposit” (arra). St. Augustine explains the difference clearly. A pledge, he says, is not the beginning of the payment but is money given to certify future payment. Once the payment is made, the pledge is returned. That is not the case with a deposit. A deposit is not returned when the payment is completed because it is already part of the payment. If God by his Spirit has given us love as a first installment, when he brings the fullness of what he has promised, will he take back the first installment he has given us? Of course not; instead he will bring the fullness of what has already been given.[6]

Just as the “first fruits” announce a full harvest and are part of it, so too the first installment is part of the full possession of the Spirit. It is “the Spirit who dwells in us” (see Rom 8:11)—more so than the immortality of the soul—that, as we see, assures the continuity between our present life and our future life.

Concerning the manner of resurrection, on this same occasion with the Sadducees Jesus describes the spiritual situation of the resurrected: “Those who are accounted worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection” (Lk 20:35-36).

One can attempt to illustrate the transition from the earthly state to the resurrected state with examples drawn from nature: the seed from which the tree springs up, lifeless nature in winter that is revived in spring, the caterpillar that is transformed into the butterfly. Paul simply says, “What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body” (1 Cor 15:42-44).

The truth is that everything regarding our condition in the afterlife remains an impenetrable mystery. It is not because God wants to keep it hidden from us but because—as limited as we are in having to think of everything within the categories of time and space—we lack the tools to portray it to ourselves. Eternity is not an entity that exists separately and that can be defined in itself, almost as if it were a period time that stretches out eternally. It is the mode of God’s being. Eternity is God! To enter into eternal life simply means to be admitted, by grace, to share God’s mode of being.

None of this would have been possible if eternity had not first entered into time. It is in the risen Christ, and thanks to him, that we can be clothed with God’s mode of being. St. Paul describes what awaits him after death as “departing and being with Christ” (see Phil 1:23). The same thing can be deduced from Jesus’ words to the good thief: “Today you will be with me in Paradise” (Lk 23:43). Paradise is being “with Christ,” as his “co-heirs.” Eternal life is a reuniting of the members to the head to form one “entity” with him in glory, after having been united to him in suffering (see Rom 8:17).

A deightful story narrated by a modern German writer helps us have a better idea of eternal life than any attempts at rational speculation. In a medieval monastery there were two monks who had a deep spiritual friendship. One was called Rufus and the other Rufinus. They spent all their free time trying to imagine and describe what eternal life would be like in the heavenly Jerusalem. Rufus was a builder, so he imagined it as a city with doors of gold studded with precious stones. Rufinus was an organist, so he imagined it as full of heavenly music.

In the end they made a pact that whichever one of them died first would return the following night to reassure his friend that things were in fact as they had imagined. One word would be enough. If things were as they had imagined, he would simply say, “Taliter!” “Exactly!” But if things were different—and this seemed completely impossible—he would say, “Aliter!”         “Different!”

While playing the organ one night, Rufinus died of a heart attack. His friend Rufus stayed awake all night anxiously, but nothing. He kept vigils and fasted for weeks and months, but nothing. Finally on the anniversary of his death, Rufinus entered his friend’s cell at night surrounded by a circle of light. Seeing that Rufinus was silent, Rufus, sure of an affirmative answer, asked his friend, “Taliter? Isn’t that right?” But his friend shook his head no. Rufus desperately cried out, “Aliter? It’s different?” And again his friend shook his head no. Finally two words suddenly came forth from his silent friend: “Totaliter aliter” “Completely different!” Rufus understood instantly that heaven was infinitely more than what they had imagined and could not be described. He also died shortly after because of his desire to be there.[7]

The story is of course a legend, but its content is very biblical. “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor 2:9). St. Symeon the New Theologian, one of the most beloved saints in the Orthodox Church, had a vision one day. He was certain he had gazed on God himself and, certain that nothing could ever be greater or more glorious than what he had seen, he said, “It is enough for me to be in this state even after death!” The Lord answered him, “You are indeed too fainthearted to be contented with this. Compared with the blessings to come, this is like a description of heaven on paper . . . [and is] inferior to the reality, the glory that will be revealed.” [8]

When people want to cross a stretch of sea, said St. Augustine, the most important thing is not to stay on the shore and squint to see what is on the opposite shore but to get in a boat that takes them to that shore.[9] For us as well, the most important thing is not to speculate about what eternal life will be like for us but to do the things we know will get us there. May our day today be a small step in that direction.

Translated from Italian by Marsha Daigle-Williamson

[1] Cornelius Tacitus, The Annals of Imperial Rome, 15, trans. Michael Grant, rev. ed. (New York: Penguin, 1996), p. 365.

[2] Martin Dibelius, Jesus, trans. Charles B. Hedrick and Frederick C. Grant (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1949),   p. 141.

[3] Charles H. Dodd, History and the Gospel (London: Nisbet, 1952), p. 109.

[4] See Søren Kierkegaard, Diary, X, 1, A, 481, trans. Peter P. Rohde (New York: Carol Publishing, 1993), pp. 163-165.

[5] St. Augustine, “Psalm 120,” 6, Expositions of the Psalms 99-120, trans. Maria Boulding, part 3, vol. 19, ed. John E. Rotelle (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2003), p. 15; see CCL, 40, p. 1791.

[6] See St. Augustine, “Sermon 23,” 9, Sermons II (20-50) on the Old Testament, trans. Edmund Hill, Part 3, vol. 2, The Works of Saint Augustine, ed. John E. Rotelle (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1990), p. 60.

[7] Hans Franck, Der Regenbogen: Siebenmalsieben Geschichten (Leipzig: H. Haessel, 1927).

[8] St. Symeon the New Theologian, “Thanksgiving at the Threshold of Total Illumination,” The Discourses, trans. C. J. deCatanzaro (New York: Paulist Press, 1980), p. 375.

[9] St. Augustine, On the Trinity, 4, 15, 20, p. 172; see also Confessions 7, 21, trans. John K. Ryan (New York: Image books, 1963), pp.179-180. – Read the source: https://zenit.org/articles/father-cantalamessas-4th-lent-homily-2017/