5th Sunday Lent A - Homily 1

Homily 1 – 2005 

Today’s story is a great story: Jesus brings a friend back to life, and then there are the other “not-much-more-than” asides that are deeply attractive and thought provoking: Jesus loved, Jesus wept, the disciples and Jesus under constant threat of death.

John uses the story primarily as a symbol (as he has done over the past two Sundays): Lazarus brought to life is symbol of the disciple brought to life.  But in Lazarus’ case it was simply back to what had previously been, albeit through the word of Jesus.  In our case the possibility is what John calls eternal life: those who believe in me will live, those who live and believe in me will never die - an outcome that is not simply worked by Jesus but consists essentially in sharing the life of Jesus: I am the resurrection and the life, with the consequence, as Paul said in the first Reading, that we belong to Christ, that Christ is in us and that the spirit of Christ is living in us.

What was the Spirit that animated Christ? what was the passion in Jesus’ depths? the vision that inexorably drew him onwards? the life that throbbed in him? the fire in his belly? I suppose that it is something that we shall never fully understand, but it seems to me that Jesus’ vision of his God was of a Father who delighted in him, of a God who loved the world so much and with such unshakeable determination.

Jesus’ vision of our world was of a world where people were in touch with and respected their own dignity and the dignity of every person and interacted accordingly in justice, compassion, profound respect and ready forgiveness.  Jesus believed in and hoped in the possibility of such a world.  He was not crushed by the depressing reality of injustice, oppression, vindictiveness, violence, fear and untruth.  He met the world’s reality with love – irrepressible love, determined to absorb the world’s evil by the only response that can absorb it: hope, forgiveness and love.  That is the Spirit that can animate us.  This is the life that Jesus offers us. 

Anything else is death: existing without meaning, existing without purpose, in frantic need of distraction, mindlessly addicted, alienated and lonely, distrusting of others, fearful of ourselves. bitter and unforgiving – not just dead but four days dead (as Martha said!) – awful!

To the extent that we are drawn by the vision of Jesus that gives meaning, sustained by the hope of Jesus that empowers action, moved by the love of Jesus that alone counters the sin of the world, we become alive.  He is indeed the resurrection and the life; and our own experience confirms that those who believe in him are truly alive with a life that transcends death.  Everyone who lives in me, who believes in me, will never die.