April 10: Fifth Sunday of Lent

Scripture readings:
• Ezekiel 37:12-14
• Psalm 130:1-8
• Romans 8:8-11
• John 11:1-45

Synopsis: 
All three readings this week revolve around the theme of death and resurrection, thus preparing us for Holy Week.

Ezekiel was a priest and prophet who ministered to his fellow Jews during the Babylonian Captivity. As a prophet to the exiles he instilled hope that one day their long ordeal would be over and their nation would be restored. The first reading is from Ezekiel’s famous vision of the valley of dry bones. The “bones” represent the exiles who have no more hope of re-establishing the kingdom of Israel than dead, dry bones have of coming back to life. They cannot restore the nation by themselves, but God can.

In the context of this week’s Gospel it prefigures the raising of Lazarus. In the second reading Paul links the resurrection of Christ to life in the Spirit. Just as the breath of God brought the dry bones back to life, so the Holy Spirit gives life to our mortal bodies, even while we are still “in the flesh.” The Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead gives new life to us through baptism.

In John’s Gospel Jesus’ miracles are called “signs” because their main purpose is to reveal his divinity. The raising of Lazarus, which took place a week before Passover, is the seventh and last sign before Jesus’ death and resurrection: the definitive proof of his divinity. Jesus weeps at the death of Lazarus not just because they were dear friends.

The Lord grieves over sin, which has brought death to the whole human race. He goes to his death as the one who is the “resurrection and the life.”

Key verse:
“Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and have you rise from them, O my people!” (Ex 37:13)

Catechism of the Catholic Church: 
“Death is a consequence of sin. Even though man’s nature is mortal, God had destined him not to die. Death was therefore contrary to the plans of God the Creator and entered the world as a consequence of sin. ‘Bodily death from which man would have been immune had he not sinned’ is thus ‘the last enemy’ of man left to be conquered” (No. 1008).

Pope Benedict XVI: 
“Seeing Martha and Mary and those who had come to console them weeping, Jesus ‘was deeply moved in spirit and troubled,’ and lastly, ‘wept.’ Christ’s heart is divine-human:  in him God and man meet perfectly, without separation and without confusion. He is the image, or rather, the incarnation of God who is love, mercy, paternal and maternal tenderness, of God who is Life” (Angelus, March 9, 2008).

Life application:
During the course of our Lenten journey we have accompanied Jesus as he fought Satan, gave hope to the woman at the well, sight to the man born blind and life to a man four days dead.  The Lord sympathizes with our weaknesses and weeps over our sins. The only-begotten Son of God became flesh, suffered and died to deliver us from sin and raise us to the new life of grace. No matter how far away from God you think you might be, he is always close to you, even in times of pain and sorrow.

James Cavanagh is director of Evangelization and Catechesis for Metro-area Parishes of the Denver Archdiocese. Cavanagh’s column is distributed by the Denver Catholic Register.