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5th Sunday of Lent, Cycle A
Terranova Hermitage
April 1-2, 2017
The
Tombs We Live in
By (Rev.
Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
Resurrection
on the Last Day
There is one sentence in this Gospel story
that I have never before highlighted in any way.
It is a significant sentence, but easy to
overlook. The context is that Martha
says to Jesus: “Lord, if you had been
here, my brother would not have died.”
Jesus replies: “Your brother will rise.”
And Martha responds with the sentence that is significant but easy to
miss. She says: “I know he will rise in
the resurrection, on the last day.”
Some Jews, in the centuries right before the
birth of Christ, had come to believe in a resurrection.
They believed that this would happen on the
last day, at the end of time. They
believed that the Messiah would come and all who had died would be raised back
to life.
So that is why Martha says: “I know Lazarus will rise in the
resurrection, on the last day.”
Martha’s statement is significant because it sets Jesus up to declare something
dramatically new.
“I Am the Resurrection”
Jesus says: “I am the resurrection and life.”
Notice: Jesus says: “I am” — not I will be —
“the resurrection.” This means that
resurrection is a present reality, as he is talking to Martha, and not only
something in the future.
Jesus’ statement means that we can live
resurrected life right now through a relationship with him. This is why he says: “Whoever believe in me, even if they die, will live, and everyone who
lives and believes in me will never die.”
By the way, the word “believe” is used eight times in this story. So there is a message here.
Jesus invites us to believe in him and then to
live out of this belief. If we do that,
we will live and even experience resurrected life right now in the moment.
How?
Because Jesus calls us and empowers us to come out of the tombs we are
in right now, just as he called Lazarus to come out of his tomb.
It is in our coming out of these tombs that
right now that we live Jesus’ life – resurrected life in the present moment.
I want to share two examples of what I mean –
there are others you can think of, I am sure.
The Tomb
of Grief
Sometimes we can be in the tomb of grief. From my experience, I know that our personal
losses, especially in the death of loved ones, can be very difficult.
It takes time to emerge from grief and feel as
if we are alive again. It takes time to
find our spark, our joy, our hope and our energy again.
Jesus calls and helps us to come out of such a
tomb.
The sacrament of the Eucharist is especially
powerful in helping with this for it offers us a visible way for Jesus to be
present to us especially in our loss and loneliness.
It empowers us to live and it draws us, little
by little, out of the tomb of grief and back into the current of life that God
must still want us to live.
The Tomb
of Self-Absorption
In our culture, there can also be the tomb of
self-absorption. I have read some
insightful authors who say that self-absorption, even narcissism is very prevalent
in our culture.
We can get into thinking only about myself and
my appearance and my desires. This
self-absorption can become so dominant that it becomes narcissistic, that we cannot
even enter into the world or viewpoint or feelings of others and don’t consider
the effect of our actions on others.
Jesus calls and helps us to come out of this
tomb as well. He moves us to a life of
relationship with others, with those whom we personally know and with those in
the larger community.
He moves us to find life and fulfillment in
this connectedness. Inch by inch we come
out of the tomb of self-absorption, even narcissism, and inch by inch come to
the awareness that my true and lasting happiness is connected with the
well-being of all others.
So, “Do You Believe?”
So, the real issue today is: do we believe
that Jesus is “the resurrection and the
life”?
If we do, then he can raise us and call us out
of the tombs we find ourselves in today.
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