H O M I L Y

One of the characteristics of the Gospel of John is particularly evident in this narrative. While the following of Christ in the three Synoptic Gospels is expressed mostly in the life of the disciples and particularly the twelve apostles, in the Gospel of John it is expressed in a privileged manner in the relationship of Jesus with a small community of close friends. And his closest friends were two women and their brother : Martha, Mary and Lazarus.

The dimension of friendship is particularly stressed in the narrative. When Lazarus becomes sick, his two sisters send to Jesus this simple message : "The one you love is sick." It is difficult to be more delicate and at the same time remind Jesus of the duty of friendship. What do you do when you are told : "The one you love is sick?" And John feels the need to say : " Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus very much". So, Jesus decides to go to Judea, although the disciples want to prevent him from going, because it is now dangerous for him to go there, since the Pharisees and the Priests want to kill him. Then Jesus informs the disciples that Lazarus has died already, saying: "Our beloved Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to wake him." When Jesus sees Mary coming to him crying and falling on her knees at his feet, he is moved with deep emotions; and the way she and Martha reproach Jesus for not being there when Lazarus died -- "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would never have died" -- is another sign of the close friendship between them and Jesus.

The Evangelist John has certainly an important message to tell us in that story. The disciples and the Apostles who lived as a community around Jesus, traveling with him, will be sent to preach the Gospel in all directions. But the community of friends of Jesus that grew up around his intimate friends – Martha, Mary and Lazarus – will be the model of the first Christian communities in the early Churches under the influence of John.

Martha is the main character in that story. She is the one who goes to meet Jesus first on the road before he arrives, and in her dialogue with him she proclaims the basic Christian Faith : "I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God: he who is to come into the world." John put therefore on Martha's lips the confession of faith that the three other Evangelists put on Peter's lips. As for Mary, because there seems to have been several women of that name, John explains that "This Mary whose brother Lazarus was sick was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and dried his feet with her hair."

As with all the texts from John, there are in this narrative several layers of meaning and many details having each one a symbolic meaning. The narrative concerning the resurrection of Lazarus – the seventh and last great sign made by Jesus – is placed, as we just saw, in the context of a beautiful friendship between Jesus and Lazarus with his two sisters Martha and Mary (and it might be good remembering that this was at a time when friendship between men and women was unheard of). Furthermore all this is a larger context for the proclamation of a more profound message, which is that Jesus is the resurrection and the life. However believes in him has already entered the realm of eternity where it is not important whether we are still alive or dead in this world. When Martha says to Jesus, speaking of her brother : "I know he will rise again, in the resurrection on the last day", she expresses the same faith in the Resurrection that the Pharisees had. But Jesus reminds her that this is not enough. Since he, Jesus, is the Resurrection, anyone who believes in him even when he dies, continues to live – continues to enjoy the real and eternal life.

As we approach the celebration of Christ's Resurrection, which is the foundation for the faith in our own resurrection, let us also remember that it was in the context of the most exquisite friendship that such a revelation was made. Our world, ravaged by so much hatred and violence, would profit of a more explicit example of love at the example of the Christians in the communities under the influence of saint John, who called themselves "friends" (1 John 3,14).

Armand VEILLEUX

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FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT A

READING I Ez 37, 12-14

Thus says the Lord God: O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them, and bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and have you rise from them, O my people! I will put my spirit in you that you may live, and I will settle you upon your land; thus you shall know that I am the Lord. I have promised, and I will do it, says the Lord.

READING II Rom 8, 8-11

Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh; you are in the spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. If Christ is in you, the body is indeed dead because of sin, while the spirit lives because of justice. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, then he who raised Christ from the dead will bring your mortal bodies to life also through his Spirit dwelling in you.

GOSPEL Jn 11, 1-45

There was a certain man named Lazarus who was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. (This Mary whose brother Lazarus was sick was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and dried his feet with her hair.) The sisters sent word to Jesus to inform him, "Lord, the one you love is sick." Upon hearing this, Jesus said:

"This sickness is not to end in death;

rather it is for God's glory,

that through it the Son of God may be glorified."

Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus very much. Yet, after hearing that Lazarus was sick, he stayed on where he was for two days more. Finally he said to his disciples, "Let us go back to Judea." "Rabbi," protested the disciples, "with the Jews only recently trying to stone you, you are going back up there again?" Jesus answered:

"Are there not twelve hours of daylight?

If a man goes walking by day he does not stumble,

because he sees the world bathed in light.

But if he goes walking at night he will stumble,

since there is no light in him."

After uttering these words, he added, "Our beloved Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to wake him." At this the disciples objected, "Lord, if he is asleep his life will be saved." Jesus had been speaking about his death, but they thought he meant sleep in the sense of slumber. Finally Jesus said plainly, "Lazarus is dead. For your sakes I am glad I was not there, that you may come to believe. In any event, let us go to him." Then Thomas (the name means "Twin") said to his fellow disciples, "Let us go along, to die with him."

When Jesus arrived at Bethany, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. The village was not far from Jerusalem -- just under two miles -- and many Jewish people had come out to console Martha and Mary over their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming she went to meet him, while Mary sat at home. Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would never have died. Even now, I am sure that God will give you whatever you ask of him." "Your brother will rise again," Jesus assured her. "I know he will rise again," Martha replied, "in the resurrection on the last day." Jesus told her:

"I am the resurrection and the life:

whoever believes in me,

though he should die, will come to life;

and whoever is alive and believes in me will never die.

Do you believe this?" "Yes, Lord," she replied. "I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God: he who is to come into the world."

When she had said this she went back and called her sister Mary. "The Teacher is here, asking for you," she whispered. As soon as Mary heard this, she got up and started out in his direction. (Actually Jesus had not yet come into the village but was still at the spot where Martha had met him.) The Jews who were in the house with Mary consoling her saw her get up quickly and go out, so they followed her, thinking she was going to the tomb to weep there. When Mary came to the place where Jesus was, seeing him, she fell at his feet and said to him, "Lord, if you had been here my brother would never have died." When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jewish folk who had accompanied her also weeping, he was troubled in spirit, moved by the deepest emotions. "Where have you laid him?" he asked. "Lord, come and see," they said. Jesus began to weep, which caused the Jews to remark, "See how much he loved him!" But some said, "He opened the eyes of that blind man. Why could he not have done something to stop this man from dying?" Once again troubled in spirit, Jesus approached the tomb.

It was a cave with a stone laid across it. "Take away the stone," Jesus directed. Martha, the dead man's sister, said to him, "Lord, it has been four days now; surely there will be a stench!" Jesus replied, "Did I not assure you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?" They then took away the stone and Jesus looked upward and said:

"Father, I thank you for having heard me.

I know that you always hear me

but I have said this for the sake of the crowd,

that they may believe that you sent me."

Having said this, he called loudly, "Lazarus, come out!" The dead man came out, bound hand and foot with linen strips, his face wrapped in a cloth. "Untie him," Jesus told them, "and let him go free."

This caused many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, to put their faith in him.