Spr 5th Sunday Lent :: Fifth Sunday Of Lent (year A)

Fifth Sunday Of Lent , Cycle A - March 9, 2008 Scripture Readings First: Ezekiel 37: 12 -- 14. Second: Romans 8:8 -- 11. Gospel: John 11: 1 -- 43 for 11:3 -- 7, 17, 20 -- 27, 33b -45. Prepared by: Father Stephen Dominic Hayes, OP 1. Subject Matter •

This Gospel represents the next installment of the Cycle A readings, especially appropriate for those being prepared for the Rites of Christian Initiation for Adults. The successive Lenten motifs of spiritual combat, apotheosis in Christ, engagement in the Holy Spirit, and the new illumination and vision communicated by faith, now culminates in this presentation of the meaning of new life and resurrection in the story of Jesus' raising Lazarus from the dead.

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The raising of Lazarus can elucidate the meaning of the Sacrament of Holy Baptism by which we are freed from the grip of the Devil and the power of death, receive a new life animated by the Holy Spirit, and are progressively freed, through life in Holy Church to eventually come face-to-face with the Lord Jesus in eternity.

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The raising of Lazarus is also a wonderful metaphor for the operation of the Sacrament of Penance . Mortal sin leaves the soul in a condition of spiritual death; and for that reason, those so set on the road to hell and tradition, rightly, cannot worthily receive the Holy Eucharist, according to its signification as food and drink. For food helps the sick and restores their strength and health according to the diet prescribed by the doctor; even so, the Bread of Angels strengthens charity and heals the illness of venial sins; but such food is wasted in the mouth of a spiritual corpse. The death of the soul' s grace which is a consequence of mortal sin requires calling forth from the dead after the pattern of Lazarus' resurrection. This is accomplished in the sacrament of confession is a penitent responds to the voice of Christ, summoning him to repentance and absolution, as Lazarus came forth from death at the command of Christ.

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Those who are called to baptism and life with Jesus are more blessed than Lazarus, and more “helped” by Christ than he was; for Lazarus rose from a physical death to die yet again, whereas those who believe in Christ, and pass over by this faith into the new life. He communicates to us in the sacraments will never, in fact die in any traditional sense of the word; at the end of their life on Earth, even as they pass into the ministry of Christ's death, they will experience death not as diminution or annihilation, but as waking into a new and richer life in which even their bodies, will, in God's time, participate in that immortality and

glory into which their souls are introduced when Christ calls them to himself through the Sacrament of Baptism. 2. Exegetical Notes •

The position of Lazarus’ resurrection in St. John's general narrative is the dramatic conclusion to the period of Jesus' public ministry. In the synoptic Gospels, the crisis with the religious leaders in Jerusalem is catalyzed by Jesus' cleansing of the Jerusalem Temple, which is placed at the end of the public Ministry narrative, and before the passion narrative. In John, the cleansing of the Temple occurs at the beginning of the public ministry (providing an explanation as to why the authorities in Jerusalem kept sending emissaries to Galilee to keep an eye on Jesus); the raising of Lazarus becomes a crisis for the religious leadership in Jerusalem, when such an astounding work of power of unmistakable divine origin (Lazarus has been dead for four days - understood to be the day when corruption had certainly set in the body) which happens so close to Jerusalem, is witnessed by many of the city's inhabitants who have gone out to comfort Martha and Mary. It is this that causes the religious leadership finally to take action against Jesus. The reason they give for their fear Jesus (vv.45-57) is that the fear that the Romans will come and destroy their nation, city , and holy place; ironically, this is exactly what happens in the First Jewish War after their rejection of Christ.

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V. 4: this sickness is not to end in death.. Jesus is not making light of Lazarus illness; he sees through his friend' s coming death to the bodily resurrection, which will be the glorification of the Son… but the Son may be glorified.

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V. 17: four days in the tomb. Several possibilities exist for Jesus waiting this precise amount of time, to heal Lazarus from death. There seems to have been a contemporary Jewish belief that the soul did not depart from the body for about three days after death; this confirms the miraculous character of the healing. Secondly, this final sign, which the Lord works occurs seven days after he announces Lazarus' sickness (vv. 4,6); DOS does Christ manifest his glory at the beginning of a "new week of creation." (Cf. 1:19-2:11: the seven "signs" (miraculous works of power) of John's Gospel correspond, according to some scholars, to a deliberate structure following the seven days of the original creation story of Genesis).

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Vv25-26: I am the resurrection and the life.. Jesus' words to Martha affirm that the power of the coming resurrection is not only real, as prophesied in the Old Testament (as in the First Reading from Ezekiel) , but is in fact present in himself; this name presents in other words, the same spiritual teaching, and we find in Matthew and Mark concerning the presence of the Kingdom of God personally present in Jesus himself, and entry into that kingdom, accomplished and manifested by personal relationship with Christ, the Son of Man, who has come to destroy death and sin and to gather those he calls to himself into a single life with him and his Father.

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Vv 43-44. Lazarus comes out of the tomb, following the voice of Christ. He is still wrapped to the grave clothes in which his body has rested lifeless for four days. This moment looks to fulfillment, not only in the last day when the voice of the Savior shall summon the dead, body and soul, to either eternal life or eternal condemnation; it is also fulfilled and those who hearing the voice of Jesus summoning them to himself. In this life, already enter into a life

over which death has no claim by reason of the holy sacrament of baptism. Those called to this life are freed from the weight of the Law under which they have lain since it was imposed under Moses; they live now by the power of the voice of Jesus, which calls them out of the kingdom of darkness ( cf. John 1) into light and life with him, freed from death and sin, and the Devil's claim on them. There is a connection here to Jesus presentation of himself as the Good Shepherd, whose sheep “hear (his) voice” and follow him safely into life eternal. 3. References to the Catechism of the Catholic Church •

CCC 640: (Jesus’) and the tomb was still an essential sign for all its discovery by the disciples was the first step towards recognizing the very fact of the resurrection. This was the case, first with the holy women, and then with Peter. The disciple "whom Jesus loved" affirmed that when he encountered the empty tomb and discovered "the linen clothes lying there, ""he saw and believed." Ms. suggested that he realized from the empty tomb's condition that the absence of Jesus body could not have been of human doing and that Jesus had not simply return to earthly life as had been the case with Lazarus.

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CCC 989: We firmly believe, and hence we hope, that just as Christ is truly risen from the dead and lives for ever, so after death the righteous will live for ever in the risen Christ, and he will raise him up on the last day.

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CCC 990: …. the "resurrection of the flesh" (the literal formulation of the Apostles' Creed) means not only that the immortal soul will live on after death, but that even our "mortal body" will come to life again.

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CCC 993: The Pharisees and many of the Lord's contemporaries hoped for the resurrection. Jesus teaches it firmly. To the Sadducees who deny it he answers, "Is this not why you are wrong, that you know neither the Scriptures know the power of God?" Faith in the resurrection rest on God, who "is not God of the dead, but of the living."

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CCC 994: Jesus links faith in the resurrection to his own person: "I am the Resurrection and the life." It is Jesus himself who on the last day will raise those who have believed in him, who have eaten his body and drunk his blood. Already now in this present life, he gives a sign and pledge of this by restoring some of the dead to life, announcing thereby his own resurrection, although it was to be of another order….

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CCC 2604: The second (explicit), prayer, before the raising of Lazarus, is recorded by St. John. Thanksgiving precedes the event:: "Father, I thank you for having heard me," which implies that the Father always hears his petitions. Jesus immediately adds: "I know that you always hear me," which implies that Jesus, on his part, constantly made such petitions. Jesus‘ prayer, characterized by thanksgiving, reveals to us how to ask: before the gift is given, Jesus commits himself to the One who in giving gives himself. The Giver is more precious than the gift; he is the "treasure"; in him abides his son's heart; the gift is given "as well."

4. Patristic Commentary •

Bede the Venerable : "Lazarus" signifies "helped". Of all the dead which Our Lord raised, he was most helped, for he had lain dead four days, when our Lord raised him to life.

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St. Augustine (Lib. Lxxxiii, quaest. 65): That Lazarus came forth from the grave, signifies the soul's deliverance from carnal sins. That became bound up in grave clothes means, that even we who are delivered from carnal things, and serve with the mind the law of God, yet cannot, so long as we are in the body, be free from the besetments of the flesh. That his face was bound about with a napkin means, but we do not attain to full knowledge in this life. And what our Lord says, " Loose him, and let him go", we learned that in another world all veils will be removed, and then we shall see face to face.

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Origen ( Tom. xxviii): He lifted up his eyes; mystically, he lifted up the human mind by prayer to the Father above. We should pray after Christ's pattern, lift up the eyes of our heart, and raise them above present things in memory, in thought, in intention. If to them who pray worthily after this fashion is given the promise in Isaiah, You shall cry, and he shall say, here I am; what answer, do we think, our Lord and Savior would receive? He was about to pray for the resurrection of Lazarus. He was heard by the Father before he prayed; his request was granted before it was made. And therefore he begins with giving thanks; I thank you, Father, that you have heard me.

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St. Augustine (Tr, xlix): …When you confess, you come forth. For what is to come forth but to go out, as it were, of your hiding place, and show yourself? But you cannot make this confession, except God move you to it, by crying with a loud voice, i.e. calling you with great grace. But even after the dead man has come forth, he remains bound for some time, i.e. as yet only a penitent. Then our Lord says to his ministers, "Loose him, and let him go, i.e. remit his sins: whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

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St. John Chrysostom (Hom. LXIV,2.) He does not say, Arise, but Come forth, speaking to the dead as if he were alive. For which reason also he does not say, Come forth in my Father's name, or Father, raise him, but throwing off the whole appearance of one praying, proceeds to show his power by acts. This is his general way. His words show humility, his acts power.

5. Examples from the Saints and Other Exemplars •

St. Augustine ( Ennarationes 101,2,3) The remission of sins is their unbinding. What good would it have done Lazarus when he came out of the tomb, if it had not been said: "Unbind him, and let him go.". He came forth bound, not on his own feet, but by some power leading him. Let this be in the heart of the penitent: when: you hear a man confessing his sins, he is already come to life again; when you hear a man lay bare his conscience in confessing, he has already come forth from the sepulcher; but he is not yet unbound. When is he unbound? By whom is he unbound? "Whatever you loose on earth" He says, "shall be loosed also in heaven." Rightly is the loosing of sins able to be given by the Church, but the dead man cannot be raised to life again except by the Lord's calling him interiorly; for this latter is done by God in a more interior way.

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St. Dominic demonstrated the power of Christ still working in holy Church when he raised from the dead Napoleon, a young nephew of Cardinal Stefano di Fossanova, papal chamberlain; the young man had been thrown from a horse while riding, and killed in the fall. Dominic called upon the Lord, raising his arms and taking the form of the crucified Lord; and then stretched himself over the young man's body like Elijah (Dominic’s Sixth Way of Prayer);

Dominic himself, it is testified, was raised up into the air miraculously in front of the onlookers.

6. Quotes •

Benedict XVI: Faith is always a path. As long as we live we are on the way, and on that account faith is always under pressure under threat… they can only mature by suffering in you, at every stage in life, depression and the power of unbelief, by admitting its reality and then finally going right through it, so that again finds the path of opening ahead for a while. (God and the World, A Conversation with Peter Seewald. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2002, pp. 33-36.)

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Benedict XVI: Faith is not just a system of knowledge, things we are told; at the heart it is a meeting with Jesus. This meeting with Jesus, among all those other meetings we have need of, is the truly decisive one. While our other meetings leave the ultimate goal and clear; where we are coming from, where we are going. At our meeting with him, the fundamental light tones, by which I can understand God, man, the world, mission, and meaning -- and by which all the other meetings fall into place. ( Ibid., p. 251.)

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Benedict XVI: Jesus announces his coming from the perspective of his Resurrection, his coming in the power of the Holy Spirit, and so he proclaims a new way of seeing that occurs in faith. … The way that God is seen in this world is by following Christ; seeing is going, is being on the way for our whole life towards the living God, whereby Jesus Christ, by the entire way that he walked, especially by the Paschal mystery of his suffering, death, resurrection and Ascension, presents us with the itinerary. … He himself is for us the face of God… What was and is new about biblical religion is the fact that the real "God," has a face and name it is a person… the Christian advances towards this awakening, dissatisfaction by looking upon the Pierced One, by looking upon Jesus Christ. (On the Way to Jesus Christ, San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2005, pp. 14-16, 26-27, 31.)

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Benedict XVI: The great explosion of the Resurrection has seized us in Baptism so as to draw us on … The Resurrection is not a thing of the past, the Resurrection has reached us and seized us. We grasp hold of it, we grasp hold of the risen Lord, and we know that he holds us firmly even when our hands grow weak. We grasp hold of his hand, and thus we also hold onto another's hands, and we become one single subject, not just one thing. …. I but no longer I: if we live in this way we transform the world. It is a program opposed to corruption and to the desire for possession. (Homily of April 15, 2006, www.vatican.va)

7. Other Considerations •

Jesus shows profound emotion (v. 33) when he is invited to visit to Lazarus. In classical authors and the Septuagint, the verb used suggests anger (embrimesthai); however, the general use of this term points not only to Jesus Christ love for his friend, a love that causes him to tremble and weep as he approaches his friend's tomb, others also the realization, foreseen as he has foreseen his friend's death and illness, but this good gift of life which he

gives to Lazarus will put into motion, his own agony and death, a chalice which will make him sweat blood in the Garden of Olives; although he will come through to Resurrection himself, his suffering, self emptying, and own passage through death remained something difficult for him to bear, humanly speaking. •

The Troparion of St. Lazarus from the Byzantine liturgy (Saturday before Palm Sunday): In

Confirming the common Resurrection, O Christ God, Thou didst raise up Lazarus from the dead before Thy Passion. Wherefore, we also, like the children, bearing the symbols of victory, cry to Thee, the Vanquisher of death: Hosanna in the highest; blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord. Recommended Resources Benedict XVI, Pope. Benedictus: Day by Day with Pope Benedict XVI. Yonkers, Ignatius Press/ Magnificat 2006. New York: Magnificat: SAS, 2006.

Copyright

Brown, Raymond E., S.S., Fitzmeyer, Joseph, S.J., and Murphy, Roland E., O. Carm. The Jerome Biblical Commentary. Two Vols. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1968. Thomas Aquinas, St. Catena Aurea: Commentary on the Four Gospels Collected out of the Works of the Fathers. Volume III- Pt. II: St. Luke. Albany, N.Y.: Preserving Christian Publications, Inc., 2001. Tugwell, Simon, OP., ed. Early Dominicans; Selected Writings. Spirituality. New York; Ramsey; Toronto : Paulist Press, 1982.

Classics of Western