The Raising of Lazarus from the Dead
The Diocese
of Fresno has extended the suspension of all Masses, classes, meetings, and
other events until after Palm Sunday – and it could go longer. So there is no
Sunday Mass this weekend of March 28-29, nor Palm Sunday Weekend of April 4-5.
Keep checking our website for the most current updates – ollcalcity.org. Also,
daily Mass from Bishop Barron's chapel in Santa Barbara is now broadcast each
day on our website during this closure.
While we
cannot feed just now on the Bread of Life, the Eucharist, Christ is still
present in His Word which each family or individual at home (hopefully safe
from any virus) can open, read, and meditate on. The Gospel for this Sunday is
the raising of Lazarus from the dead. If you have a Missal, open it up to the
Fifth Week of Lent and pray through the entire Mass: antiphons, readings, the special
Preface for the raising of Lazarus, chose one of the Eucharistic Prayers, and
then make a spiritual communion with our Lord. End with the communion antiphon
and closing prayer. If your family is really brave, add some joyful singing
because this Sunday we anticipate Christ’s resurrection!
To put some
context around the Gospel of the raising of Lazarus, recall the other Lazarus
mentioned in one of Jesus’ parables (Luke 16). It was probably more than a year
earlier. Jesus had been teaching his disciples that no one can serve two
masters and you cannot serve God and “mammon” (the love of money, the greedy
pursuit of gain). The Pharisees, “who were lovers of money,” were listening and
scoffed at this, and Jesus called them out on trying to justify themselves.
Then He told a parable about a rich man who totally ignored a sick, poor man named
Lazarus laying at the rich man’s gate. Both died. The rich man, in hell, saw
Lazarus across a great chasm being comforted by Father Abraham. Remember in the
parable what Abraham told the rich man? “If they do not hear Moses and the
prophets, neither will they be convinced if some one should rise from the
dead.”
Now another
context: fast forward after the raising of Lazarus in Sunday’s Gospel to the
evening before Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem (John 12) (perhaps around
two months later). Jesus and his disciples are at dinner with Mary, Martha, and
Lazarus (alive again and well) in their home in Bethany. Mary anoints Jesus’
feet with costly ointment. Judas, the thief and lover of mammon, complains
about money being wasted. We are next told that crowds of people were looking
for Jesus and Lazarus, and the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death
(along with Jesus) “because on account of him many of the Jews were going away
and believing in Jesus.”
The next
day that same crowd of people were at the gates of Jerusalem crying out,
“Hosanna!” prompting the Pharisees to exclaim, “See, you can do nothing! The
whole world has gone after Him!”
The “whole
world has gone after” Jesus because he raised Lazarus from the dead. That was
the last straw for the Pharisees and chief priests and Judas. For lovers of
mammon who would not take God as their master, their world was being turned
upside down.
This is the
crucial importance of Sunday’s Gospel. Jesus' raising Lazarus after four days
in the tomb was the pivotal sign Christ gave. It backs up His prophetic word spoken
that first Holy Week, “When I am lifted up from the earth [crucified], I will
draw all men to Myself” (Jn 12:32), and the Father’s confirming word, “I have
glorified [My Name], and I will glorify it again” [Jesus’ resurrection] (Jn
12:28).
And it
backs up Jesus’ words spoken to Martha that earlier time when they both stood
outside the tomb where Lazarus lay in death: “I am the resurrection and the
life; he who believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever
lives and believes in Me shall never die.” (Jn 11:25-26.) The raising of
Lazarus was THE sign of Jesus' resurrection to – not just temporal, resuscitated
life like Lazaurus, but to Eternal Life, a whole new kind of existence of
humanity with God.
Dibby Green
Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church is located in California City, CA. Visit our website at ollcalcity.org.