Sunday, March 17, 2013

Death and Life

5th Sunday of Lent



We’ve come to the fifth Sunday in Lent.  Next Sunday is Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week and our entry into Easter.  It’s time to begin our intensive preparation for the celebration of Easter.  Today, all three readings speak of death and life.  They want to prepare us to celebrate Easter.  And we need that preparation.
 
The Church is being a good pastor for us, because – much like the disciples in Jesus’ day – we do tend to miss the point.  We miss the point of Easter because we run from death.  We fear death.  We resent it.  And we question it – why death?  Why should I have to die?  And yet we know each of us must and will die.

The gospel account of the raising of Lazarus intends to take up our question of death.  The story comes at the conclusion of what is called in the gospel of John “the Book of Signs”.  Signs are works done by Jesus which point to the way God is present among us.  They point to the way God is dealing with us now.

In the Lazarus story our questions, our fearful resentment of death find a voice in Mary.  Mary – whose love for Jesus is true and deep – this same loving Mary can also reproach Jesus for his delay in coming to Lazarus.  “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”  We should hear Mary speaking with a certain edge to her voice.  She is crying for her dead brother.  And Jesus joins her in her tears.  In the face of death faith does not despair – yet it is also no stranger to tears.  Death is real and so is the suffering it causes.  It is only right to grieve and cry in death’s presence.

But in the end Jesus calls Lazarus out of the tomb – out of the grip of death . “Lazarus, come out! …Untie him and let him go.”  This is the sign Jesus works which points to what God does for us.  It is in our dying that the Father destroys death and our fear of it.

What have we to look forward to in death?  Let us not be afraid to reflect on our dying.  As we enter into the process of dying, we know eventually all will be taken from us.  The cosmetics of life we have valued so highly:  the stuff we’ve accumulated – our silly pretensions to importance – our ceaseless busyness – all will be taken away.  And finally, finally we will have only ourselves – relieved of the sham self we have shown to others.  It will be death’s gift to us that we finally come to ourselves honestly – we finally come to our true self – the self born of God and returning to God.  There we will be able to say “yes” – able to say finally, fully and gratefully “yes” to our true self – our eternal self.

In celebrating Easter we will celebrate the feast of the Paschal Mystery.  The Paschal Mystery is the absolute core conviction of Christian faith.  It is our basic take on life.  For us it is the shape of all reality.  Paschal Mystery says that all our dying – all our deaths and diminishments of whatever kind – all our dying is leading us into deeper, fuller, richer life.  Each day, every day and that final day we die – to beget new life.  Each day, every day and that final day we die – into life, into new life.  And all this is God’s doing.  God takes our dying and shapes it into something life-giving – for ourselves and for others.

To our catechumens and candidates – to all of us Jesus puts today the same question he put to Martha:  “Do you believe?”  “Do you believe that everyone who lives and believes in me will never die?”  That question is being put squarely to us today.  Do we believe in Paschal Mystery?  Do we really want Jesus-style resurrection – his new life?  It only comes from our dying.  We call it “everlasting life”, “eternal life”.  We pray for it fervently.  But do we want Jesus-style new life?  It only comes from our dying.

Are we prepared to celebrate Easter?

 

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