Lazarus Lives

The texts of the Roman Catholic Lectionary on the fifth Sunday of Lent are rich in food for reflection. Fr Larry Gillick SJ suggests five themes for the Gospel today. They are death and resurrection, personal love of Jesus, Jesus’ calling us out of our personal tombs, The Light and The Life, and the role of “signs” or “works”. The short passage from the book of Ezekiel follows the “dry bones” episode (Ezekiel 37:1-14) where the prophet acts “in front of God” to minister the breath of Life from God putting flesh and life on lifeless bones. Paul exhorts the Romans to live in the indwelling Spirit which raised Jesus from the dead. The psalmist proclaims the intention to wait hopefully for the Lord. Living the intimate relationship with the Divine will bring steadfast love and redemption from our iniquities or our ‘personal tombs’. The details of Lazarus return from the dead in the Gospel of John offer the opportunity to reflect on the specific actions of Jesus and other persons included by the evangelist. The story is long and full of detail. The style of John is to make every word drip with meaning. The imagination will bring life to these words of life.