DAILY MEDITATION: “I am the resurrection”

Liturgical day: Fifth Sunday of Lent (A)

Gospel text (Jn 11,1-45): 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.” 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 Messiah, 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.

“I am the resurrection”

Fr. Johannes VILAR
(Köln, Germany)

Today, the Church presents us with a great miracle: Jesus resurrects a deceased that had been dead for several days.

Lazarus' resurrection is a “prognostication” of that of Christ, which we will soon commemorate. Jesus tells Martha that He is the "resurrection" and life (cf. Jn 11, 25). He asks all of us: “Do you believe this?” (Jn 11, 26). Do we believe that God has given us a new life through the Baptism? St. Paul says that we are a new creation (cf. 2Cor 5, 17). This resurrection is the foundation of our hope, which is not based upon an uncertain, future and false utopia, but upon a fact: “The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!” (Lk 24, 34).

Jesus says to them: “Untie him and let him go” (Jn 11, 44). Redemption has liberated us from the chains of sin that we were all suffering from. Pope Leo the Great said: “Mistakes were defeated, authority mastered and the world gained a new start. Because if we share in his sufferings we will also share in his glory (cf. Rom 8, 17). This gain is not only prepared for those who suffer in the name of the Lord, at the hands of the godless. Because all those who serve God and live in Him are crucified in Christ, and in Christ they will receive the crown”.

We Christians are called to live, already in this world, this new supernatural life that allows us to get credit for our destiny: Always ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks us for a reason for our hope! (cf. 1Pet 3, 15). It is logical that in these days we try to follow Jesus Master closely. Traditions as the Via Crucis, the meditation of the mysteries of Rosary, the texts of the Gospels, all this... may and must be a great help for us.

Our hope is also deposited in Mary, Jesus Christ's Mother and also our Mother, who, in turn, is an icon of hope: at the foot of the Cross she awaited against all hope and was associated with the deeds of her Son.

Source: evangeli.net