'Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’ Sunday Reflections, Fifth Sunday of Lent, Year A

The Raising of Lazarus, Rembrandt [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

For the shorter form of the Gospel omit the passages [in square brackets].

Gospel John 11:1-44 [11:3-7, 17, 20-27, 33b-45] (New Revised  Standard Version, Anglicised Catholic Edition) 

[Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill.] So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, ‘Lord, he whom you love is ill.’ But when Jesus heard it, he said, ‘This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.’ Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

Then after this he said to the disciples, ‘Let us go to Judea again.’  [The disciples said to him, ‘Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?’ Jesus answered, ‘Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this world. But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them.’ After saying this, he told them, ‘Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.’ The disciples said to him, ‘Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.’ Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, ‘Lazarus is dead. For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.’ Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow-disciples, ‘Let us also go, that we may die with him.’]

When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. [Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother.] When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. Martha said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ Martha said to him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’ She said to him, ‘Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.’

[When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, ‘The Teacher is here and is calling for you.’ And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt 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 came with her also weeping, he] was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to him, ‘Lord, come and see.’ Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, ‘See how he loved him!’ But some of them said, ‘Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?’

Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, ‘Take away the stone.’ Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, ‘Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead for four days.’  Jesus said to her, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?’ So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upwards and said, ‘Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.’ When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’  The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, and let him go.’

Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.

From The Gospel of John 

I think it was back in the 1980s when I was at home in Ireland on a visit that I heard a young diocesan priest being interviewed on national radio about his work as a prison chaplain. He spoke about an occasion when he spent an hour in a cell with one prisoner who was there for stealing on a large scale. The priest got no response whatever - until he was about to leave. He then looked at the young man, put his arms around him and said, 'I love you', adding the man's name.

The prisoner broke down and began to open up to the priest. Over a period of time they became friends. After he was released the young man set up a successful security agency, no doubt drawing on his 'professional skills'.

In Worldwide Marriage Encounter we say 'Love is a decision'. At times it may be accompanied by warm feelings, at other times the very opposite. It is easy for a young man and a young woman who find each other attractive to feel 'love'. This may lead to 'until death do us part', a very solemn decision to love one another.

In his general audience on Wednesday, 2 April 2014, Pope Francis reminded married couples of this, gently, humorously and clearly. The secret is that love is stronger than an argument. And therefore I always advise married couples, 'Don't end your day without making peace.

Here the Pope was saying 'Love is a decision'. He added humorously: It's not necessary to call the United Nations and have them come to your house to broker the peace. A little gesture will do, a caress, a 'Goodnight, see you tomorrow'. And tomorrow you start over. This is life, carry on! Go forward with the courage to want to live together. This is great, it's beautiful. What Pope Francis is saying here is that love is a decision, a major decision made on one's wedding day that demands many daily 'minor' decisions. The same applies to anyone called to a commitment.

The young priest visiting the prisoner in Ireland wasn't experiencing any feelings of love for the prisoner and the latter probably felt deep anger towards him, maybe even hatred. But the priest made a decision to love that man, no matter how difficult it was, no matter what he was feeling at the time.

The Raising of Lazarus (after Rembrandt), Van Gogh

[Web Gallery of Art]

In the gospel we find Jesus making a number of decisions, all expressions of love:

• He decided not to go immediately to visit the gravely ill Lazarus when he got news of this: Though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.
• He then decided to go back to Judea despite the fears of his disciples that harm would come to him.
• He accepted the reproaches of both Martha and Mary: Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. He made no attempt to 'explain' why he hadn't come.
• He told the people: Take away the stone.

The purpose of Jesus in all these decisions was to lead the disciples and Martha and Mary into a deeper faith:

• To the disciples and later to Martha: Lazarus is dead.  For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe.
• To the Father: Father, I thank you for having heard me.  I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me. 

It is clear from the gospels that Jesus had a special, though not exclusive, affection for Martha, Mary and Lazarus. Maybe he felt free to drop into their home at any time and not be 'on duty'. (As an aside, in more than 40 years in the Philippines I have rarely seen a bishop invited to any kind of occasion except to 'do something', to be 'on duty'.) The friendship Jesus had with the three gave them the freedom to be open with him and to be true to themselves.  Luke 10:38-42 shows us Martha scolding Mary in front of Jesus in a way that happens with someone considered part of the family. The Lord, if you had been here . . . of both Martha and Mary can be read as a reproach mingled with hope to someone deeply trusted. 

Jesus invites each of us into that kind of warm, trusting relationship that is expressed in the story about St Teresa of Avila: Once, when she was travelling to one of her convents, St Teresa of Ávila was knocked off her donkey and fell into the mud, injuring her leg. 'Lord', she said, 'you couldn’t have picked a worse time for this to happen. Why would you let this happen?' And the response in prayer that she heard was, 'That is how I treat my friends'. Teresa answered, 'And that is why you have so few of them!'

But above all in the raising of Lazarus, which points towards the death and Resurrection of Jesus himself, we see the resurrection and the life who was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved confronting death and conquering it. The death he was conquering wasn't only physical death but the sickness and death brought about by sin. Jesus calls us to faith and hope in him and to make decisions to love based on that faith and hope.

It was such faith that gave that young priest in the prison cell the courage to express his love, rooted in the love of Jesus for both, for the prisoner in deed and then in word. And it was that expression of love, in deed and in word, rooted in the love of the resurrection and the life for both, that enabled the man to walk out of the prison cell he had created for himself in his own heart.

The decision of the priest to stay with the prisoner despite the lack of response and the eventual decision of the prisoner to believe in God's love for him were both examples of love being a decision, decisions based on trust in God's love for them, the kind of trust that Martha and Mary had in Jesus.

Antiphona ad Introitum Cf Ps 42 (43) 1-2

Iudica me, Deus

et discerne causam meam de gente non sancta,

ab homine iniquo et doloso eripe me,

qui tu es Deus meus et fortitudo mea.

Entrance Antiphon  Cf Ps 42 (43) 1-2

Give me justice, O God,

and plead my cause against a nation that is faithless.

From the deceitful and cunning rescue me,

for you, O God, are my strength.

'At his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus . . .' Sunday Reflections, 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C

Dives and Lazarus, c.1595, Leandro Bassano

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)                                  

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England &Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Gospel Luke 16:19-31 (Revised Standard Version – Catholic Edition)

Jesus said to the Pharisees:

"There was a rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, full of sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table; moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. 

The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried; and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes, and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus in his bosom. And he called out, 'Father Abraham, have mercy upon me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in anguish in this flame.'

But Abraham said, 'Son, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.'

And he said, 'Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.'

But Abraham said, 'They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.' And he said, 'No, father Abraham; but if some one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' He said to him, 'If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if some one should rise from the dead.'"

Responsorial Psalm (NAB Lectionary)

Missionaries of Charity

An Indian Missionary of Charity who was based in Hong Kong for some years told me of something that happened there shortly before Christmas 2009. Yang was what Sister called a ‘street-sleeper’, ie, someone living on the streets. Strictly speaking he wasn’t, as he had a little place where he lived with his mother. Both were Buddhists. Yang was in poor health and couldn’t get a job. He mixed mostly with those who were ‘street-sleepers’.

He first came across the Missionaries of Charity when they were distributing lunch-boxes to very poor people in the street. He began to come to their place regularly for a meal and made a point of coming to the annual Advent celebration when gifts would be distributed and a meal provided. Yang’s mother often wondered where he got his regular meals. ‘From Sister’ was his answer to her queries but she didn’t know who ‘Sister’ was.

Yang didn’t attend the Advent celebration in 2009 because he was in hospital but he asked his mother to go in his place. When she arrived the celebration was over but the Sisters had kept one meal in case someone would arrive late. So they gave it to her.

A day or two later, around 19 0r 20 December, Yang died. Some time after that his mother came to the Sisters to express her profound gratitude to them for their kindness and hospitality to her son and to herself.

Yang and his mother experienced the personal love of Jesus for them through the Missionaries of Charity who took care of the many Lazaruses outside their door. And Sister told me that food never ran out. It was constantly supplied by hotels and restaurants.

Zaatari camp for Syrian refugees in Jordan

Jesus gives a name to Lazarus but not to the rich man, though 'Dives', the Latin for 'rich', is often used as a name for him, such as in the ballad below. It is difficult to give a name to each person in a refugee camp where there may be tens of thousands, a sight we are all too familiar with. Yet people are extraordinarily generous when a calamity occurs, whether caused by nature or by man. And there are many who leave the comfort of their own home and homeland to take care of those in such places who have nothing.

Each person in a refugee camp has a name, a family, a history, hopes, God-given talents, an invitation to live with God for ever in heaven. And even in the relatively affluent West many are in need because of the economic situation. The Capuchin Day Centre in Dublin, for example, which initially helped individuals really down on their luck, as we say in Ireland, is now helping families that in the past didn't experience hardship. 

There is much to be done to bring the Gospel to change the lives of the many Lazaruses throughout the world - working for peace, working for justice at the level of legislation and so on. God calls some to serve Lazarus in this way. But while the slow work of peace-building and the rest goes on, Lazarus is outside our door each day in need of sustenance to help him survive till the following day.

'Dives' is the Latin word for 'rich'. Though Jesus gave a name only to the beggar in the parable, Lazarus, 'Dives' is often used as a name for the rich man. Above is an old English ballad based on the parable. Some of you may recognise the melody as the same one used for the Irish song The Star of the County Down. I found the lyrics of the song here but adjusted them in places. Ballads have variations. 'Divès' becomes 'Diverus' at times.

As it fell out upon a day,

Rich Divès made a feast,

And he invited all his friends,

And gentry of the best.

Then Lazarus laid him down and down

And down at Divès' door:

'Some meat, some drink, brother, Diverus,

To bestow upon the poor.'

'Thou art none of my brother, Lazarus,

Lie begging at my door;

No meat, no drink will I give to you,

Nor bestow upon the poor.'

Then Divès sent to his merry men,

To whip poor Lazarus away;

They had no power to strike one stroke,

But flung their whips away.

Then Lazarus laid him down and down

Even down at Divès' gate:

'Some meat, some drink, brother, Diverus,

For Jesus Christ’s sake."

"Thou art none of my brother, Lazarus,

Lies begging at my gate;

No meat, no drink will I give to you,

For Jesus Christ’s sake.'

Then Divès sent his hungry dogs,

To bite him as he lay;

They had no power to bite at all.

They licked his sores away.

As it fell out all on a day,

Poor Lazarus sickened and died;

There came an angel out of heaven,

His soul therein to guide.

'Rise up! rise up! brother Lazarus,

And go along with me;

For you've a place prepared in heaven,

To sit on an angel's knee.'

As it fell out all on a day,

Rich Divès sickened and died;

There came two serpents out of hell,

His soul therein to guide.

'Rise up! rise up! brother Diverus,

And go with us and see;

A dismal place prepared in hell

From which thou canst not flee.'

Then Divès looked up with his eyes

And saw poor Lazarus blest;

'Give me one drink, brother Lazarus,

To quench my flaming thirst.

'O, was I now but alive again

In the space of one half hour!

O, then my peace would be secure

The devil should have no power.'

Photos from Wikipedia.

A Palm Sunday Reflection on Death and Hope

The Raising of Lazarus, Rembrandt, c 1630

Fr Catalino Arevalo SJ is a distinguished Filipino theologian. Here is a reflection he wrote for Palm Sunday and that I've received in a number of emails, It can be found in other places on the internet.

PALM SUNDAY – AND THE BASICS by Fr Catalino Arevalo SJ

September 11 forced many of us, even unwillingly, to reflect on, or at least think of, death. The novelist, Leo Tolstoy wrote that for anyone, who is over 40, not to think upon death, is to be foolish.

It is a salutary exercise, especially in Lent, to reflect upon our death. "The two great mysteries that confront us are God and death," Richard Holloway writes. "And the life of Jesus Christ illuminates the darkness of both."

The raising of Lazarus is a good starting point. Jesus then told us: "No man has seen but only the Son." He revealed his Father as unconditional and compassionate love.

And (again, citing Holloway) "Jesus also lit up the other great mystery that confronts us –death ---by irradiating the awfulness of death with the power of his own life."

Martha, who wept at his dead brother's grave, said Lazarus would "rise again, in the resurrection on the last day." "I am the resurrection and I am life," Jesus responded.

But Jesus' reply is not about the last day; it is about the now; it is about himself, even now, as life. "If someone has faith in me, even though he dies, he shall come to life, "Jesus responds. "And no one, who is alive, and has faith, shall ever die. Do you believe this?"

A recent nationwide survey found that only about 30 percent of young Filipinos (from age seven to 21) believe in life after death, in heaven, or in hell.

Those who conducted the survey --- people with excellent academic credentials -- -were shocked by these findings. "Those who believe there is no resurrection" are majority of the young around us.

Believing Christians fail very badly to communicate to the young what they repeat every Sunday in the Creed: "We believe in the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come." Many of the young, in most countries throughout the world, have no idea of what the words, "I am life" tell us.

But in Lazarus' raising, we meet the Jesus' pledge "which has accompanied Christians in their death, since the dawn of the Church." In his first letter the Corinthians, Paul writes: "O death, where is your victory. Death, where is your sting?"

Paul does not mean there is no natural death for those whom the redemptive work of Christ delivered from the power of sin. No. But the Christian, in faith and hope, does not encounter death as a mystery of darkness, of threat, fear-even terror.

The Christian, in faith and hope, meets death as his final freeing, even joyous encounter, with the Christ who died and rose again for him, to be with him, especially in the last hour of his earthly life. The saint of Lisieux, the Carmelite nun Thérèse Martin, said of her death: "I do not die; I enter into life."

Death is going home to a loving and forgiving Father. It is something like Jesus' dying in the Gospel of Luke: "Father, into your hands I entrust my spirit."

A writer has said that Jesus' last words on the cross, in Luke, are aptly "translated" by the child's bedtime prayer: "Now I lay me down to sleep/ I pray thee Lord, my soul to keep/ And if I die before I wake/ I pray thee Lord my soul to take."

Imprisoned in Rome, and facing execution, Paul wrote to the Philippians: "For to me life is Christ and death is gain...and what I long for is to depart and be with Christ."

Death is not darkness, for Paul. Nor is it threat or terror. It is going into the fullness of life. Therese wrote: "I do not die. I enter into life..." For the saints, Christ has become a "blazing reality" waiting for them...loving infinitely more than time-bound earth-bound lovers.

One great blessing of the priesthood (is) how often we meet Christians, who come to death with the same longing of Paul:

Just in the last few years ---a classmate, brought by long illness from a less-than-exemplary life to peace, at the end, convinced of God's gentle mercy for him; a dying grandmother I gave communion to, could not contain her longing to be with the Lord; a nun, with cancer pains tearing her apart, saying: "Jesus will be there, at the bend of the road."

"I am the resurrection and I am the life. "That life Jesus gives us, not at the end of our lives only, but even now. That life, which is his own, and will never die in us, but only come to fulfillment in death. "No one who lives, and has faith, will ever die."

Most of us do not love God with the "blazing fire" of the saints. We have not come to look on death they way they did. We're caught in the secularized world's attitudes towards death--fear, even terror, or the sad studied indifference of those who cannot bring themselves to face it.

"One reason I am a Christian, "a famous preacher said, "is because I want to know how to die." One of Church's purposes is to reach us how to die-how to give up the earthly things and earthly-loves we hold on to, so passionately.

Thus, when the final letting go is asked of us, at the end of our life's journey, we shall have, at last, gathered in our hearts, some true longing for the lasting beauty, "ever ancient, ever new."

It awaits us, "after this our exile." Perhaps, we can learn to say with Thérèse, even half-haltingly, even with poorer faith: "I do not die. I enter into life'.