Life in Abundance: The Fifth Sunday of Lent

                                                  Life in Abundance:

The Fifth Sunday of Lent

March 26, 2023

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Ezekiel 37:12-14; Psalm 130; Romans 8:8-11; John 11:1-45

 

          Jesus calls his friend Lazarus out of the tomb, and because God is a creator God, when we Christians speak of death, we speak of life. Jesus’s story does not end in death; God’s story is about the continuation of life. Lazarus’s death was not to end in sadness, but to reveal God’s glory. Through God’s extraordinary grace, Jesus calls the dead to life, and life is given in abundance.

 

          Following this story, we know that many Jews came to see Lazarus and came to believe in Jesus. You can imagine the questions they had with Lazarus. What was death like? What did you experience when you died? Is there a heaven? What is it like? Is it a place? What happens to our body after death? Did you meet God? And, now you are back to life. What are you going to do differently as you have a new perspective and worldview?

 

          You can imagine Lazarus’s first moments when he was called back to life. As the cloth was being unwound around his body, the looseness he felt of that cloth on his skin and the air that touched the hairs on his arm. When his nose was uncovered and he could gasp for air once again, and to see anew when his eyes refocused. All his sense were most likely heightened as he could hear the voice of Jesus, his sisters, and the crowd as they stood nearby in grief and in amazement. Come out, he heard, as he was given life once again. I bet he was giddy. I bet he wanted to use every sense he had to embrace the life given to him once again.

 

          We, too, are called by Jesus in the same words, “Come out. Live in abundance and use it well.” Life is too short to squander, and we have no time to waste. It is best that we reflect upon our most meaningful values and then orient our lives around it. With God as our creative, life-giving source, we can celebrate the goodness that is around us, and delve into our gifts to use them to bring us, not just happiness, but joy because joy is the proof that we trust in the Resurrection. We can be like Lazarus who can hear, see, taste, smell, and feel again. We can be giddy that we wake up each morning and realize we are surrounding by loving people who deeply care for our well being. We can chuckle at the graces and blessings that surround us and give life deeper meaning and relief. The presence of death makes us appreciate life, and when we are honest with ourselves, death is always around, and we know life to be both precious and precarious. 

 

          We also know that we have a God that loves life and creates life out of nothingness. We have to listen to God’s call who whispers, “Come out. Live again. Live fully this time. I’ve got your back. Together, we can create that which is vibrant and full. Live in my abundance. And together, we will laugh. 

 

Scripture for Daily Mass

 

First Reading: 

Monday: (Daniel 13) Daniel’s sharp advocacy skills spare the life of Susannah who has been unjustly accused of immoral sexual relationships.

 

Tuesday: (Numbers 21) As the wandering Israelites passed through the desert near the Red Sea, many are bitten by seraph serpents, but Moses erected a bronze serpent that he lifted up for those bitten to gaze upon the image and be cured. 

 

Wednesday: (Isaiah 7) Annunciation: Ahaz is tempted by the Lord to ask for a sign but he will not. The Lord gives it anyways: the virgin shall conceive and bear a son named Emmanuel.

 

Thursday: (Genesis 17) The Lord said to Abraham: You are to become the father of a host of nations. You will become fertile; kings will stem from you.   

 

Friday: (Jeremiah 20) Terror on every side. Let us denounce him. The Lord is with me like a mighty champion.

 

Saturday: (Ezekiel 37) My dwelling shall be with my people. I will be their God and they shall be my people.   

 

Gospel: 

Monday: (John 8) A woman caught in adultery is brought to Jesus for a verdict, but he does not answer as he calls upon those who are without sin to cast the first stone. 

 

Tuesday: (John 8) Jesus tells the Pharisees that they will lift up the Son of Man and will then realized that I AM. 

 

Wednesday: (Luke 1) Gabriel was sent to Mary of Nazareth to inform her that she has been chosen by the Lord to bear a son who will be called holy, the Son of God.

 

Thursday: (John 8) Whoever keeps my words will never see death. Abraham rejoiced to see my day; he saw it and was glad.

 

Friday: (John 10) The Jews picked up rocks to stone Jesus, but he wanted to know for which of the works he was condemned. He went back across the Jordan and remained there.

 

Saturday: (John 11) Many came to believe in Jesus. Caiaphas asked, “do you consider that it is better for you that one man should die instead of the people?”

 

Saints of the Week

 

No saints are remembered on the calendar during this week.

 

This Week in Jesuit History

 

• March 26, 1553: Ignatius of Loyola's letter on obedience was sent to the Jesuits of Portugal. 
• March 27, 1587: At Messina died Fr. Thomas Evans, an Englishman at 29. He had suffered imprisonment for his defense of the Catholic faith in England. 
• March 28, 1606: At the Guildhall, London, the trial of Fr. Henry Garnet, falsely accused of complicity in the Gunpowder Plot. 
• March 29, 1523: Ignatius' first visit to Rome on his way from Manresa to Palestine. 
• March 30, 1545: At Meliapore, Francis Xavier came on pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Thomas the Apostle. 
• March 31, 1548: Fr. Anthony Corduba, rector of the College of Salamanca, begged Ignatius to admit him into the Society so as to escape the cardinalate which Charles V intended to procure for him. 
• April 1, 1941. The death of Hippolyte Delehaye in Brussels. He was an eminent hagiographer and in charge of the Bollandists from 1912 to 1941.