Sunday – 5th Week of Lent – A

A few Sundays ago, we examined the woman at the well, and Jesus displays his divine knowledge. He knew everything about her. In fact, that's what she went and screamed to her fellow countrymen, come and see a man who has told me everything about my life (John 4:29). Then the following Sunday, just last Sunday, we saw Jesus giving sight to a blind man, to the man born blind. And so our Lord's extraordinary power to grant us vision, and in a more important sense, spiritual vision, to be able to see more clearly. In today's Gospel from John, we come to another iconic episode, the raising of Lazarus from the grave.

And we begin today's readings from the Book of the prophet Ezekiel, and he declares, “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” (Ezekiel 37:12). Now, first of all, my brothers and sisters, let's look at the historical meaning, the immediate context. The prophet Ezekiel is speaking to Israel during their Babylonian exile, a moment when the people felt as good as dead. Jerusalem had been destroyed, the temple was gone, the people were scattered and humiliated. So when God says, “I will open your graves and have you rise from them” (Ezekiel 37:12), this is not first about physical resurrection, but about national restoration and the restoration of dignity. The graves can mean the exile, the despair, the loss of their identity. The rising can mean the return, the eventual return to the land that God had promised. And the Spirit can mean the renewed life as God's people within that holy land. So God is promising: I will bring you back. You are not finished.

The second meaning of this prophecy given by God is spiritual, interior in its meaning. It's stronger than mere political return. God speaks of opening graves, raising the dead, breathing his Spirit in the sense that sin is a kind of death, and conversion from sin is a kind of resurrection. So the prophecy also means God can raise a soul that is spiritually dead. He can restore hope where there is despair. He gives new life through his Spirit, and this connects beautifully with baptism, where from death in original sin we move to life in the grace of God. And then throughout our lives, through confession, we have the restoration of grace, God breathing in new life within us through his Spirit.

The third and final meaning of this prophecy from the Lord is Christological. In its fulfillment, we find its full meaning in Christ. What Ezekiel foretells symbolically, Christ fulfills literally and definitively, first through his own resurrection. Jesus actually rises from the grave, revealing that God's power is not just metaphorical, and neither are his promises. Second, our own resurrection. This text becomes a prophecy of the resurrection of the dead at the end of time, and that God will truly open graves.

Now, a foretaste of all of this is given in the raising of Lazarus from the dead. And we also have the second reading from Saint Paul's Letter to the Romans, where he says that “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” (Romans 8:11). God has given us his Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, and if we have the Spirit of Christ within us, even our mortal bodies will rise just as he himself had promised: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day” (John 6:54).

When he arrives on the scene, Jesus says to Martha and Mary, “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” (John 11:25–26). And our Lord is, we're told, perturbed. “He became perturbed and deeply troubled” (John 11:33) and said, “Where have you laid him?” (John 11:34). They said to him, “Sir, come and see” (John 11:34). And “Jesus wept” (John 11:35). And then again we read, “So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb” (John 11:38).

Now, brothers and sisters, in the Greek Gospel of John, in other words, in the original language in which he wrote the Gospel, the word translated as perturbed does not mean mild sadness or a gentle disturbance. No, it carries the sense of to be deeply moved with indignation, to groan inwardly, even to be angered or stirred with intensity. So Jesus is not just sad, he is viscerally shaken.

Now there are several things that are causing this reaction in Jesus. First of all, the reality of death itself. What he sees is the devastation of humanity, the rupture of creation, the enemy at work. That which God had created, the devil had stifled. So his reaction is in part a holy anger against death itself.

Another reason for this reaction is his grief, his grief of losing somebody he loved. We are told, “Jesus wept” (John 11:35). This is the shortest verse in Scripture, but it's immeasurably deep. Jesus sees Mary weeping, he sees the mourners, he feels their sorrow. This is not abstract compassion on the part of our Lord, but a manifestation of his personal love. He is moved because he loves Lazarus. He loves all of them.

Another reason is the lack or fragility of the faith that he is seeing around him. Even after his miracles, his teachings, we hear them say, “Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man have done something?” (John 11:37). Look at how the Church presents these readings beautifully, one after the other, one Sunday after the other, so that we can truly reflect on what's happening. So these people are connecting the death of Lazarus with the blind man that Jesus had cured, and there's doubt, confusion, a very limited faith. And even Martha, moments earlier, hesitates: “Lord, by now there will be a stench” (John 11:39). So all of this contributes to his inner turmoil. He's not angry at them, but there's a deep pain at their inability to fully trust.

Another reason he's perturbed is because all of this is reminding him of his own hour, the hour of his passion, death, resurrection, and ascension to the Father's right hand, and the suffering that awaits him.

As we approach Holy Week, my brothers and sisters, let us continue to immerse ourselves deeply in prayer, in the Word of God, in almsgiving and helping those around us, so that we too can experience Holy Week just as the apostles did, walking side by side with Jesus, accompanying him in his darkest hour, so that the rays of the sun will break through the dark skies and eventually lead to Easter Sunday, the day of his victory over death.

May Almighty God continue to bless you all through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Go in peace, knowing that the Lord is with you. Amen.