Homily: 5th Sunday of Lent 2014 - "I will open your graves"

On this fifth Sunday of Lent we hear another of these magnificent miracle stories from the Gospel of John.  Two weeks ago we heard the story of the woman at the well.  Caught up in a rhythm of sin and thirsting for God , she encountered the Lord Jesus, who said to her, “I will give you living water, which alone can satisfy”.  She represents all of us: all thirsting for God, but all too often trying to quench that thirst in all the wrong places.

Last week we heard of the man born blind.  Again, he is all of us: born in the blindness of sin.  Our minds so often clouded and confused, even in our attempts to live righteously.  Jesus says to him and to all of us, “I am the light of the world.”  If you want to see rightly, be grafted on to me. 

These stories in John’s Gospel move toward a sort of crescendo.  I am living water, he says, “I am the light,” he says.  And today Jesus speaks the greatest of the “I am” statements.  He says, “I am the resurrection and the life.” What is our God interested in?  Life! 

One of my favorite quotations from the early Church fathers is from St. Ireneus of Lyons, who said, Gloria Dei Homo Vivens, “the glory of God is the human being fully alive.”  Jesus himself said, I came that they might have life, and have it to abundance.

Christ died, that we may live, free from sin, full of divine life. 

God’s glory, what gives God happiness, is that we are fully alive.  Conversely, what saddens the heart of God is when we continue to allow sin and death to reign in us at any level, physically, emotionally, spiritually. 

No, God is not distant, aloof, indifferent to the sufferings of man.  We have a God whose human and sacred heart breaks for us.  Our Lord has experienced our sufferings, anyone whose heart has broken over the death of a loved one.

Jesus was fully human.  He loved to visit three of his best friends: Martha, Mary, and Lazarus.  He loved a good meal with them, He enjoyed their hospitality.  In today’s Gospel we see his response when one of his best friends dies: he cries.  Jesus wept.  The shortest verse in the Gospel, John 11:35: Jesus wept.  The God of life who made man and the cosmos from nothing, wept, that death had power over his loved ones. 

We certainly see Jesus’ humanity on display.  Yet, we also see his divinity.  For only God can raise the dead to new life.  Only God has the power to free us from the chains of bondage.  Only he has the power to break the bonds of death.  He is the giver of life, and has entered into our humanity that we may be freed from sin and death.

St. Augustine said that Lazarus in his grave symbolizes man in the state of spiritual death.  In sin, the life of God’s grace in man’s soul is dead.  Only God, the giver of life can restore him from spiritual death.

Remember, in front of Lazarus’ tomb was rolled this huge rock.  It is the huge rock that we roll in front of our hearts when we choose sin, turning away from God’s commands and the life of charity.  Deep down inside because of that, our hearts, our souls are filled, like the tomb of lazarus with rot. 

Think about it: the human heart is meant to be a temple for God, adorned with virtue, especially faith, and hope, and love.  The soul of a saint and the soul of the sinner are quite different.  Imagine that same temple, filled not with love for God, but with anger, hatred, lust, and selfishness. 

I remember reading that Saint Christina would become nauseated when she was in the presence of people whose souls were dead and rotting because of mortal sin.  A heart which becomes closed to God begins to fill with decay, and rot, and death. 

The good news? The stone is rolled away and Jesus brings light and life and renewal and freshness.  Jesus commands the stone to be rolled away, even when there would be a stench.  There isn’t a soul so rotten that Jesus cannot heal it.

This week we will celebrate a communal penance service at 7pm.  In the Sacrament of Reconciliation, when we confess our sins, the stone is rolled back.  The sins may seem rotten, embarrassing to tell to the priest; but when we confess them with sorrow, Jesus brings light and life and renewal and refreshment.  What a wonderful Sacrament!

For most of us, we do not have full big stones rolled over our hearts in total rejection of God.  Yet, what about stones covering certain facets of our hearts; where we fail to give God our whole hearts.  "I know i should love my neighbor, but not that one, it's too hard." "I know i should follow the teachings of the Church, but not that one, it's too hard." "I know i should resist a certain temptation, but not that one, it's too hard."

That is what Lent is all about, that the stones which we roll in front of our hearts which keep us from experiencing the love of God and the lives he desires for us may be rolled back.  Remember the first line of our first reading today, “O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them.”  The Sacrament of Confession is always a new beginning where we receive new energy to live the Gospel and remain faithful in times of temptation.

He will bring us light and life and renewal if we expose our hearts to him.  Christ died, that we may live, free from sin, full of divine life.  May we die to sin and be filled and stirred to a new life of faith, hope, and love for the glory of God and salvation of souls.