Readings: Ez 37: 12-14; Rom 8:8-11; Jn 11:1-45
Life and death; hope and despair are the key words that sum up
the message of this Sunday. All three readings this Sunday lead us to meet
Jesus who is the resurrection and the life. It is around this central theme,
that the Church celebrates the third Scrutiny with those preparing for the
Easter Sacraments. In the prayer over the candidates this Sunday, the presider
says these words: "Free from the grasp of death those who await your
life-giving sacraments, and deliver them from the spirit of corruption."
The readings provide a sharp contrast between life and death; hope and despair.
They also remind us of real life experiences of the destructive forces of death
in real families. We are reminded of the pain of death faced by millions of
people every day all over the world. The prophet Ezekiel in the first reading
urges the devastated nation of Israel to look beyond the destruction of
Jerusalem to a new future, when God’s Spirit will restore Israel. If you are
facing grief or strife in the family, there is good news for you. The prophet
Ezekiel prophesies hope for those who believe in the God of life. You and I
have many times encountered the shattering effects of death in the family as I
did just one year before my ordination to priesthood, when I suddenly lost my
dad in a tragic highway accident in which 3 others died with him in 1966.
In the perspective of stewardship, the episode of the
raising of Lazarus to life offers three challenges. The first challenge is the
grace of initiative to respond to God’s grace. At times when we are spiritually
dead, we need someone to roll away the stone that blocks the door of faith and trust, so that we can begin to be alive again and breathe the
fresh air of God’s grace. Indeed we are our sister’s and brother’s keepers; we
are stewards of our brothers and sisters. It is a sin of omission to see your
brother or sister spiritually dead (in a state of sin) and choose to do
nothing. Rolling away the stone that keeps such persons in the tomb is bold
evangelization – the fourth sign of a dynamic Catholic. The second
challenge is listening to God calling us and inviting us to come out of the
tomb. Some people just prefer to remain in their sleep. We need to wake up.
Anthony DeMelo sums up this point beautifully. “Spirituality means waking up. Most people, even though they
don't know it, are asleep. They're born asleep, they live asleep, they marry in
their sleep, they breed children in their sleep, they die in their sleep
without ever waking up!” Responding to the voice of Jesus calling us to
come out of our tombs leads us to be the best version of ourselves and become
God’s instruments of transforming others by waking them up from their slumber of
sloth to life again. “Transforming people one at a time is at the heart of
God’s plan for the world.” (Matthew Kelly)
The
third challenge is the imperative of “untying and letting others go!” This is a
powerful image of stewardship. Being raised from the dead; from our spiritual
slumber is not enough. Imagine if someone had not challenged us to wake up from
our spiritual slumber! We would still be lying there in the burial clothes
around our body unable to untie ourselves. We need stewards, who care about us;
who clean our wounds, bandage them and care for us until we recover from the
shock of being robbed of God’s grace, beaten up and left on the roadside to
die! The message of this Sunday may be summed up in a few points. 1)
Stewardship challenges us to roll the stone away for someone this week; 2) It
also challenges us to help others hear the voice of Jesus calling; 3) It
further challenges us to help to untie those still in bondage by sharing with
them the best way to live so they can be free and be the best version of
themselves. That is evangelization, the
fourth sign of a dynamic Catholic. Be bold, be Catholic, be a dynamic Catholic!
©2015 John S. Mbinda
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