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Homily, Fifth Sunday of Lent |
March 9, 2008
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Dear
Brendan,
I hope you can steal a few minutes to read and reflect on
this message. May God bless you in the week ahead.
God Bless
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Homily
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Question of
the Week |
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March 9, 2008
Jesus told Martha, " 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."
How do I show my gratitude for His gift
of eternal life?
_____________________
March 16, 2008
Jesus sacrificed himself and willingly
died for our sins.
How do I sacrifice, in his name, for
others?
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Take Away The Stone and Come Out
Most of us assume that Lazarus was overjoyed to be
restored to life by Jesus. But in his play "Calgary,"
William Bulter Yeats offered a different point of view. He
portrays Lazarus coming out of the tomb irritated and
ungrateful saying to Jesus. "I was in there four days and I
was quite comfortable in my dark little cave. I don't know
why you had to disturb me and call me out into the light. .
." as some of the dialogue goes. In this version, Yeats
portrays Lazarus as not being not interested in being
restored to life. Life was too much for him. Life had become
too difficult and he preferred the quiet and peaceful death.
[1]
It is somewhat of a shocking angle on the story of
Lazarus but it is intended to jar you into thinking, what
would have Lazarus actually wanted? We don't ever hear
anything about Lazarus. In the gospel, we do not hear if he
was overjoyed, if he was saddened. We don't hear anything
from Lazarus from here on and so we struggle to know what
would Lazarus' reaction may have been after being called
back out of the tomb. But that is not the point. The point
of the gospel is what Christ does.
This part of the gospel is a miracle - and in the gospel
of John, miracles are called signs. And this is the 7th of
the seven signs of the book of the Gospel of John. And each
one tells us and reveals something about Jesus. The first
sign was the Wedding at Cana where Jesus changes the water
into wine that reveals Jesus as the son of God. And now we
hear today, the last piece, if you would, of the puzzle is
Jesus' resurrection of Lazarus to life as it says in today's
gospel. The purpose of these signs is to bring a person who
does not believe through their journey of faith, through
these 7 signs so that they can grow in faith.
Just like Yeats' Lazarus, I think there are a lot of
people, who know about Jesus Christ in the world, and who
really are not interested in becoming Christians. They do
not actually want to embrace the truth because they are
quite comfortable in the darkness of their own cave. They
prefer to be left alone and not to be called out and not to
come out into the light as Jesus did with Lazarus.
And indeed many of us who are Catholic, and many more who
claim to be Catholic are people who say they believe, but
the reality is in their lives, they are no more different
from the person who stands right beside them, who is an
unbeliever. Fundamentally, our lives are uninformed by Jesus
or uninformed by the Spirit. And we wonder, what will it
take for us to come out into the light, to come out of our
cave of darkness that we hide ourselves in, we are
comfortable in the dark, not having to stand out in the
light.
Today, Jesus is not only saying to Lazarus that he is the
resurrection and the life, he is also saying that to you and
me, hat he is the resurrection and the life; that all who
believe in him and all who live in him will have eternal
life. Now, somehow that knowledge has to change our
worldview, that has to somehow inform us and make us vastly
different. If we realize that is the truth, it somehow
changes us. Somehow, we have to open our hearts to allow the
light of Christ to shine.
That is exactly what Paul is trying to tell the Romans
today in the 2nd reading. He is trying to tell them we are
called to live in the Spirit We are called to allow this
living Spirit that is within us to shine brightly, to inform
our lives, to really come alive. I think we, as Catholics,
are sometimes afraid of the Spirit; we are afraid of what
the Spirit might do. If we allow the Spirit to come alive,
will I become some strange person; will I become a person
who waves his hands like Fr. Brendan, all sort of crazy and
all excited about his faith? Will I turn out like that? Or
will I turn out to be one of those people, who are really
active in their faith; they serve those in need and who are
willing to give their time away; and willing to fight for
justice? We are sometimes afraid of what we might turn out
to be. We are called to grab a hold of that fear and to walk
out into the light, to come out of our cave of darkness and
into the light and to not be afraid.
Here is where I think Nelson Mandela had it right when he
said "we are sometimes not so much afraid of our failure,
but afraid of our possible success." What if I am successful
in allowing the Spirit to rule my life? Then my life will be
different. That is exactly what the Lord is asking us to do
today. To come out. To take away the stone and come out into
the light.
This all sounds so wonderful and we say okay. Yes. But
what does it actually mean? The story of Lazarus gives us
this hope in eternal life and we are called to live that
reality in our lives today. We need to be people of hope in
our darkened world. We need to be the ones who are willing
to forgive, when no one else around us is willing to
forgive. We are the ones who are called to stretch out and
to be loving to others when nobody else is willing to be
loving. We are the ones who must be willing to say I am
sorry when no body else is willing to say I am sorry. We are
called to be the bearers of hope; we are to give hope in the
midst of the darkness of other people's lives. So that if
other people are suffering and in pain, that our actions,
our words will give them hope so that they too can come out
of the darkness and to believe in the risen Lord and to
believe in Christ, the Son of God.
So, today, the message to Lazarus to come out, is also a
message for us; we are to come out of the cave of our own
comfortable darkness, called out by the Lord Himself and to
walk out into the light so that we too can live as an active
Christian in our world. Take away that stone and come out!
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Footnotes
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[1] Patricia Datchuck Sanchez, "Celebration: An Ecumenical
Worship Resource," (Kansas City, Missouri: National Catholic
Reporter Company, Inc., March 9, 2008). |
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Scripture Readings
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Fifth Sunday of Lent
Ez 37:12-14
Thus says the Lord GOD:
O my people, I will open your graves
and have you rise from them,
and bring you back to the land of Israel.
Then you shall know that I am the LORD,
when I open your graves and have you rise from them,
O my people!
I will put my spirit in you that you may live,
and I will settle you upon your land;
thus you shall know that I am the LORD.
I have promised, and I will do it, says the LORD.
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.
Rom 8:8-11
Brothers and sisters:
Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
But you are not in the flesh;
on the contrary, you are in the spirit,
if only the Spirit of God dwells in you.
Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong
to him.
But if Christ is in you,
although the body is dead because of sin,
the spirit is alive because of righteousness.
If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead
dwells in you,
the one who raised Christ from the dead
will give life to your mortal bodies also,
through his Spirit dwelling in you.
Jn 11:1-45 or 11:3-7, 17, 20-27, 33b-45
Now a man was ill, Lazarus from Bethany,
the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
Mary was the one who had anointed the Lord with perfumed oil
and dried his feet with her hair;
it was her brother Lazarus who was ill.
So the sisters sent word to him saying,
"Master, the one you love is ill."
hen 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.
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Holy Spirit Parish
1200 Redmond Avenue
San Jose, California 95120
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