5th Sunday of Lent Year A - 6/4//2014 - Gospel: Jn 11, 3-7. 17. 20-27. 33b-45
Burial
Not all deaths result in a funeral such as a death of a dream or a relationship. These deaths have no funeral because we burry them deep in our heart. There is also no funeral for a death of a personal faith in Christ. It just simply slipped away or was buried in the back of our mind.
Restoring life of a death man Jesus breathes new life of faith to his Apostles and enlivened the faith of those who know the man when they queried about the power of Jesus.
'He opened the eyes of the blind man, could he not have prevented this man's death? V.38
Jesus said to the two sisters who mourned over their brother's death that God creates life, not death. Mary and Martha believed Jesus has the power over death, illness and pain and suffering and they placed their hope in Jesus. Restoring life to Lazarus is the way Jesus makes God's love known and for greater glory of God because God's love is much more powerful than death and God's love is for the human race. Jesus defeats death to say the final victory is not death but resurrection in Christ. We, like Mary and Martha, sometimes wonder why Jesus is slow in responding to our prayers.
Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died (vv. 21, 32).
Jesus has His own timetable and acts in the interest of God the Father. We recall His response to Mary 'my hour has not yet come' when she made a request to do something at the wedding at Cana (2,4). People told Jesus that Lazarus had been entombed for four days and the body was in the process of decomposing. The two sisters have unwavering faith in Jesus, even though they don't understand it. They firmly believe that their brother will rise again at the resurrection and when it happens they have no idea. To deepen their faith and let us know that God is above our time. Jesus told them things may late for us but never for Jesus.
"I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" (v.26).
The two sisters confessed that resurrection and life are in God's hands and that God responds to whatever Jesus asked for. They believe Jesus who is the source of life and resurrection and through Him resurrection can be at any moment. Jesus told them that everyone who lives and believes in him will never die. The future resurrection is already present in Jesus and Lazarus was the first person who experienced it. With faith in Jesus we have a glimpse of what the next life will be like. It has already begun in Jesus but not yet fully revealed.
The journey from death to life that Lazarus has experienced is personalization of our own. It is the journey that each of us must go through physical death before the glorious resurrection. And our relatives and friends also experienced the loss and pain of separation like Martha and Mary had before the dawn of new life begins in Christ. Those who have faith in Jesus know that physical death is only a transition before the resurrection. The stink of death is temporarily because God's love is more powerful than our sin.
Restoring life of a death man Jesus breathes new life of faith to his Apostles and enlivened the faith of those who know the man when they queried about the power of Jesus.
'He opened the eyes of the blind man, could he not have prevented this man's death? V.38
Jesus said to the two sisters who mourned over their brother's death that God creates life, not death. Mary and Martha believed Jesus has the power over death, illness and pain and suffering and they placed their hope in Jesus. Restoring life to Lazarus is the way Jesus makes God's love known and for greater glory of God because God's love is much more powerful than death and God's love is for the human race. Jesus defeats death to say the final victory is not death but resurrection in Christ. We, like Mary and Martha, sometimes wonder why Jesus is slow in responding to our prayers.
Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died (vv. 21, 32).
Jesus has His own timetable and acts in the interest of God the Father. We recall His response to Mary 'my hour has not yet come' when she made a request to do something at the wedding at Cana (2,4). People told Jesus that Lazarus had been entombed for four days and the body was in the process of decomposing. The two sisters have unwavering faith in Jesus, even though they don't understand it. They firmly believe that their brother will rise again at the resurrection and when it happens they have no idea. To deepen their faith and let us know that God is above our time. Jesus told them things may late for us but never for Jesus.
"I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" (v.26).
The two sisters confessed that resurrection and life are in God's hands and that God responds to whatever Jesus asked for. They believe Jesus who is the source of life and resurrection and through Him resurrection can be at any moment. Jesus told them that everyone who lives and believes in him will never die. The future resurrection is already present in Jesus and Lazarus was the first person who experienced it. With faith in Jesus we have a glimpse of what the next life will be like. It has already begun in Jesus but not yet fully revealed.
The journey from death to life that Lazarus has experienced is personalization of our own. It is the journey that each of us must go through physical death before the glorious resurrection. And our relatives and friends also experienced the loss and pain of separation like Martha and Mary had before the dawn of new life begins in Christ. Those who have faith in Jesus know that physical death is only a transition before the resurrection. The stink of death is temporarily because God's love is more powerful than our sin.
Written by Fr Vũđình Tường
St Francis Xavier Catholic Parish
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane Australia
St Francis Xavier Catholic Parish
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane Australia