Fifth Sunday of Lent Year A 2023

Title

I Will Open Your Graves

Outline

Death is glossed over in our days

While the Catholic Church has specific standards for dealing with death, much of the funeral industry is into making the reality of death unreal. The body may not be present in the chapel for it may have been cremated or liquified or composted - returned to union with this world. The music and the like is often sentimental, mystical, even Buddhistic. Likewise the medical profession often cannot handle death well - it is only a failure (or with certain pills be over and done with quickly).

The Scriptures speak honestly about death because they know about redemption and resurrection.

Ezekiel speaks life to a people

He has been prophesying doom and death, but now he talks about the resurrection of the people. “Open your graves” and “bring you back to the land of Israel.” The death of the people is temporary, a step in bringing about new life.

Romans speaks of the Spirit’s renewal leading to resurrection

A life focused on this age is dead end - it cannot please God. That is the horizon of those around us.

The Spirit enlivens our soul or spirit, our rationality, so that we see a new horizon and become alive to it - we are living beyond the physical.

The third step is the “therefore:” when we know that God’s Spirit is living in us, then we are certain that God will raise our mortal bodies as he did Christ’s.

In other words, during this life the focus is on transforming us to be like Christ and after death the transformation of the body to be like Christ’s resurrection body takes place.

We often get it backwards and focus on the healing or transformation of the body now and live in denial of death.

Finally in John we discover Jesus as resurrection in person.

There are previews of Christ’s death in our Gospel: Mary’s anointing of Jesus’ body; Thomas’ declaration of total loyalty to Jesus despite his going up to Jerusalem to death.

Lazarus’ death is semi-denied. No one understands Jesus’ waiting before going to Lazarus; both sisters say, “If you had been here he would not have died,” for there is no hope after death even with Jesus there; once the disciples understand that Lazarus is dead most do not want to go into the danger that Jerusalem represents - Jesus can do nothing.

Jesus goes into the mess bringing his person to bear. First, he uses Martha’s doctrinal faith in the resurrection “on the last day” to bring the seeds of hope that resurrection is where Jesus is: “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?” Notice how he leaves terms like “lives and believes” and “never die” undefined, for he is redefining them with his presence.

Second, he goes to the tomb with both women (Mary seems to have no hope at all), commands that it be opened (despite Martha’s practical objections), and calls Lazarus out, making clear in his prayer that this is a divine action because the Father had sent him.

Third, he points out that resurrection in this age is not complete: there is still something needed, “Loose him and let him go.”

John never tells us if Lazarus died again or if, being loosed, he one day disappeared.

So, Sisters, I call on us all to meditate on our death and celebrate the deaths of the faithful

Like Thomas a Kempis, Meditations on Death, we meditate on our deaths so that we view all of present life in terms of what it means in the light of our being face to face with Jesus. How much do you do this?

Like Nichoas Diat’s A Time to Die we follow the monastic presence of not denying death but rather keeping the dead in remembrance as those who had passed into the full presence of Jesus, who is life and resurrection, i.e. the second phase of life, and await the third phase of the life when we have a body like Jesus’ to stand before him.

We reverse the ways of this world, its denial of death and its focus on this life, because we experience within us through the Spirit the presence of Jesus who is the resurrection in person. And that changes everything.

Readings

Catholic Daily Readings 3-26-2023: Fifth Sunday of Lent

FIRST READING

Ezekiel 37:12–14

12 Therefore, prophesy and say to them: Thus says the Lord GOD: Look! I am going to open your graves; I will make you come up out of your graves, my people, and bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 You shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and make you come up out of them, my people! 14 I will put my spirit in you that you may come to life, and I will settle you in your land. Then you shall know that I am the LORD. I have spoken; I will do it—oracle of the LORD.

Catholic Daily Readings 3-26-2023: Fifth Sunday of Lent

RESPONSE

Psalm 130:7

7 let Israel hope in the LORD,

For with the LORD is mercy,

with him is plenteous redemption,

PSALM

Psalm 130:1–8

1 A song of ascents.

Out of the depths I call to you, LORD;

2 Lord, hear my cry!

May your ears be attentive

to my cry for mercy.

3 If you, LORD, keep account of sins,

Lord, who can stand?

4 But with you is forgiveness

and so you are revered.

5 I wait for the LORD,

my soul waits

and I hope for his word.

6 My soul looks for the Lord

more than sentinels for daybreak.

More than sentinels for daybreak,

7 let Israel hope in the LORD,

For with the LORD is mercy,

with him is plenteous redemption,

8 And he will redeem Israel

from all its sins.

Catholic Daily Readings 3-26-2023: Fifth Sunday of Lent

SECOND READING

Romans 8:8–11

8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 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. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 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 that dwells in you.

Catholic Daily Readings 3-26-2023: Fifth Sunday of Lent

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION

John 11:25a–26

25 Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

GOSPEL

Option A

John 11:1–45

1 Now a man was ill, Lazarus from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 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. 3 So the sisters sent word to him, saying, “Master, the one you love is ill.” 4 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.” 5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So when he heard that he was ill, he remained for two days in the place where he was. 7 Then after this he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.” 8 The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you, and you want to go back there?” 9 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. 10 But if one walks at night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” 11 He said this, and then told them, “Our friend Lazarus is asleep, but I am going to awaken him.” 12 So the disciples said to him, “Master, if he is asleep, he will be saved.” 13 But Jesus was talking about his death, while they thought that he meant ordinary sleep. 14 So then Jesus said to them clearly, “Lazarus has died. 15 And I am glad for you that I was not there, that you may believe. Let us go to him.” 16 So Thomas, called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go to die with him.”

17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, only about two miles away. 19 And many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him; but Mary sat at home. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 [But] even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” 27  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.”

28 When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary secretly, saying, “The teacher is here and is asking for you.” 29 As soon as she heard this, she rose quickly and went to him. 30 For Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still where Martha had met him. 31 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. 32 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.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping, he became perturbed and deeply troubled, 34 and said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Sir, come and see.” 35 And Jesus wept. 36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him.” 37 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?”

38 So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay across it. 39 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.” 40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus raised his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you for hearing me. 42 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.” 43 And when he had said this, he cried out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 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.”

45 Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary and seen what he had done began to believe in him.

Notes

Catholic Daily Readings 3-26-2023: Fifth Sunday of Lent

SUNDAY, MARCH 26, 2023 | LENT

FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT

YEAR A | ROMAN MISSAL | LECTIONARY

First Reading Ezekiel 37:12–14

Response Psalm 130:7

Psalm Psalm 130:1–8

Second Reading Romans 8:8–11

Gospel Acclamation John 11:25a–26

Gospel John 11:1–45 or John 11:3–7, 17, 20–27, 33b–45

VIOLET