5th Sunday of Lent 2025 - (Third Scrutiny) - Raising of Lazarus

 

Two weeks ago, we heard the story of the woman at the well.  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. Jesus invites all people of all time to drink deeply of the living waters of God through Him.

Last week we heard of the man born blind.  Again, he is all of us, born in the blindness of sin.  We desire to do good and avoid evil, but it’s not always easy to see clearly. Sometimes our egos and our sinful attachments are so great, they blind us to seeing how God wants us to live rightly. Jesus says to the man born blind and to all of us, “I am the light of the world.”  If you want to see rightly, let the light of Christ and His teachings enlighten you.

These stories in John’s Gospel move toward a sort of crescendo. I am living water which quenches thirst. I am the light by which you see. And today Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life.” He’s not just water, He’s not just light. He is Life itself. And he desire that His life might animate us in this life, that it might sustain us through death, and animate us in all eternity, including the resurrection.

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 Man 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 allow death to reign in us at any level: physically, emotionally, or spiritually.  Sin diminishes us, God restores life.

Next, week, on Palm Sunday, we’ll come to understand the price the Lord pays to defeat the powers of death in us. But on this fifth Sunday of Lent, we’re invited to consider how the Lord commands us to live.

Today, our three catechumens present themselves for the last of the three scrutinies. They do so because they want to live and they recognize that Jesus is the resurrection and the life. So, you’ll notice in the scrutiny prayers many references to life, being restored to life and raised to life, like Lazarus in our Gospel today.

We heard in our first reading about God’s desire to free us from the powers of the grave: “I will open your graves and have you rise from them…I will put my spirit in you that you may live, and I will settle you upon your land” we heard in our first reading.

Our three Catechumens will receive the gift of new life in Baptism this Easter Vigil. They have heard that same promise that God made to Israel all those centuries ago, the promise of life, and through prayer and fasting and study have opened themselves to the fulfillment of that promise in them. Thanks be to God. They have heard the Lord calling them to come out of their tombs, like Lazarus. Thanks be to God.

Why follow Jesus Christ? Why seek baptism and faithfulness to him? The promise of being raised from the dead is a pretty good reason. Living forever in God’s kingdom of peace is a pretty good reason. And it’s not just an empty promise--the promise of some delusional California cult leader.

Resurrection: it’s really the ultimate argument against anyone who says all religions are the same. No. They aren’t. Show me a member of another religion who not only raised the dead but also rose from the dead.

“I will open your graves and have you rise from them. Here the Lord is not just speaking of the promise of rising from our graves on the last day, when he returns. The grave is also wherever the powers of sin and evil and death reign in us still: an addiction, a habitual sin, an inability or unwillingness to forgive, anger and bitterness, perversion, fear of leaving behind the comfortable to follow Christ more devoutly, lack of fervor for the spiritual life…the grave is whatever limits the life of God in you. Think of laying in a grave, there is no place to move, you are constricted, unable to move, tied up, and God says, from your graves, I will have you rise up.” 

In the Gospels, we have not one story, but three stories of Jesus raising the dead. We just heard the story of Lazarus; can you think of the other two? The first one is the daughter of Jairus. Remember the little girl who died in her home when Jesus was on the way to heal her?  The second is the son of the widow of Naim.  Jesus sees the widow weeping as they brought out the body of her son, and Jesus is moved to raise him from the dead.

St. Augustine offered a spiritual reading of these three encounters with the dead.

Because Jairus’ daughter dies inside her house, St. Augustine says that her death symbolizes the sort of spiritual death that remains locked up in us—the sort of sins that poisons us from the inside: the resentments, the old grudges.  They aren’t necessarily expressed in words or actions, they just sort of fester within us, poisoning our thoughts, and our wills, and our imagination.  These are the sins we do in private—though no sin is private to God, of course. Jesus raises this little girl, just as he wants to heal us from all of our interior sinful attitudes.

Secondly, the son of the widow of Naim.  He had died and was being carried outside the house to the cemetery. St. Augustine says, he symbolizes the sins that have begun to express themselves in action.  When the interior anger and resentment, selfishness and lust bubble over in words of actions. But Jesus forgives these too.

The third person Jesus raises from the dead, his friend Lazarus.  Lazarus had been carried out of the house and placed in a tomb.  By the time Jesus gets there, Lazarus has been in the tomb for four days.  His sister, famously says, when Jesus instructs them to roll away the stone that blocks the tomb, “but Lord, surely, there will be a stench.”

St. Augustine says that Lazarus in his grave, symbolizes that evil, that spiritual death, that not only has come out of the heart in words and actions, but has established itself as a habitual.  Now, the anger, the hatred, the violence, the lust, have taken root, and have become such a part of my life and my activity, that, like Lazarus in the tomb, there is a stench, and it’s affecting the people around me.  That anger, addiction, selfishness or lust now affects the well-being of the family. Neighbors begin to avoid us because of our stench.

Jesus is of course able to heal those sins too, but like the others, there must be confession, there must be acknowledgement that these sins exist in me, and that I need a savior.

May we have the humility and honesty to recognize the need to be raised by Jesus, healed by Jesus, that we may truly live with him for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

December 6 2021 - St. Nicholas - Generous, miracle-worker, hammer of heretics

 

Children of all ages can readily identify the saint we honor today.  The man with the twinkling eyes, the smiling face, the ample body and the pillowed red suit.  Historically, we know that Nicholas was a bishop of Myra a city in what is now Turkey in the fourth century.

Perhaps one of the best-known stories about Nicholas concerns his generosity towards a poor family

The culture of the time , in order for a young woman to marry, the father had to provide her with a dowry so that her new husband would be able to pay for her upkeep, at least for some period of time. Families without money for a dowry often couldn’t get their daughters married. One poor father didn’t know what to do for his three daughters. If he were to die or be incapable of work, they would be driven prostitution for survival.

Nicholas heard of the family’s situation and one night threw a bag of gold coins through the family’s open window, enough for the dowry for the oldest daughter who was soon married. The next night, Nicholas threw in another bag, sufficient for the dowry of the middle daughter, who likewise was married. The third night Nicholas tossed a third bag to help marry the third daughter of the father.

There is something profoundly holy about this sort of anonymous charity. “When you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites, rather, let your giving be in secret” the Lord teaches us.

St. Nicholas was not only charitable, but a miracle worker. There is an amazing miracle story where Bishop Nicholas restored to life three young men who had been killed.  There was a food shortage in Myra, and the local butcher abducted and killed three young men, and put them in brine to cure them before making them into a ham.  Bishop Nicholas became aware of this through the Holy Spirit, found the boys, restored them to life, and converted the butcher to Christianity.

Bishop Nicholas was also a great lover and defender of truth. Bishop Nicholas stood up for the truth at the council of Nicaea. When the heretic priest Arius claimed that Jesus was not of the same substance with the Father, Nicholas corrected Arius….physically. There are pictures of Nicholas slapping Arius in the mouth for the foul errors spewing from it. St. Nicholas is sometimes called the “hammer of heretics” for this great defense of the faith.

Here was a bishop, aware and responsive to the needs of the poor in his diocese, whose holiness was evident due to the miraculous stories which began to arise around him, and a bishop who was a great defender of the Apostolic Faith. He is certainly a model for all bishops today.

And, Nicholas is a model for all of us especially during advent—a saint in which generosity, holiness, and love of truth are combined, as they always are. Where one is lacking so will the other two.

Advent challenges us to look for opportunities for such anonymous benefaction, for the corporal and spiritual needs of others, to pray for others, especially those in need of a miracles, perhaps, even through lives of holiness to become instruments of God’s miraculous love, and like St. Nicholas to deepen our understanding and preach the Apostolic Truth about Christ for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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For Pope Francis, Bishop Malesic, and all of the ordained, that their ministry may be effective in leading the Church in spreading Christ’s saving Gospel.

That our elected officials, judges, government leaders and people of good will may work together in defending innocent human life, working for the common good, and righting injustice.

For our young people, that they may be kept safe from the errors of our culture and kept in close friendship with Jesus through prayer and acts of mercy.

For all whose lives are marked by suffering, disease or sorrow, may they come to know the healing and peace of Christ.

For the deceased of our parish, family and friends, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Almighty ever-living God, who bring salvation to all and desire that no one should perish, hear the prayers of your people and grant that the course of our world may be directed by your peaceful rule and your Church rejoice in tranquility and devotion. Through Christ our Lord.

A reading from the epistle to the Hebrews

Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teaching.* It is good to have our hearts strengthened by grace and not by foods, which do not benefit those who live by them. We have an altar* from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. The bodies of the animals whose blood the high priest brings into the sanctuary as a sin offering are burned outside the camp. Therefore, Jesus also suffered outside the gate, to consecrate the people by his own blood. Let us then go to him outside the camp, bearing the reproach that he bore. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the one that is to come. Through him [then] let us continually offer God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name.

A continuation of the holy gospel according to St. matthew

At that time, Jesus spoke this parable to His disciples: a man who was going on a journey called in his servants and entrusted his possessions to them. To one he gave five talents;* to another, two; to a third, one—to each according to his ability. Then he went away. Immediately the one who received five talents went and traded with them, and made another five. Likewise, the one who received two made another two. But the man who received one went off and dug a hole in the ground and buried his master’s money. After a long time the master of those servants came back and settled accounts with them. The one who had received five talents came forward bringing the additional five.* He said, ‘Master, you gave me five talents. See, I have made five more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. Since you were faithful in small matters, I will give you great responsibilities. Come, share your master’s joy.’ [Then] the one who had received two talents also came forward and said, ‘Master, you gave me two talents. See, I have made two more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. Since you were faithful in small matters, I will give you great responsibilities. Come, share your master’s joy.’

 

5th Sunday of Lent 2021 - Jesus raises the dead to new life

Two weeks ago we heard the story of the woman at the well.  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. Jesus invites all people of all time to drink deeply of the living waters of God through Him.

Last week we heard of the man born blind.  Again, he is all of us, born in the blindness of sin.  We desire to do good and avoid evil, but it’s not always easy to see clearly. Sometimes our egos, our sinful attachments are so great, they blind us to seeing how God wants us to live rightly. Jesus says to the man born blind and to all of us, “I am the light of the world.”  If you want to see rightly, let the light of my life and my teachings enlighten you. 

These stories in John’s Gospel move toward a sort of crescendo. I am living water which quenches thirst. I am the light by which you see. And today Jesus speaks the greatest of the “I am” statements.  He says, “I am the resurrection and the life” without which you are not fully alive nor will you experience the life of the resurrection. 

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 Man 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 death to reign in us at any level, physically, emotionally, spiritually.  

God speaking through in Ezekiel in the first reading says, “I will open your graves and have you rise from them.”  He’s not just speaking of our final resting place here.  Whatever grave you are in: perhaps an inability to forgive someone, perhaps a jealousy, an inability to grieve the loss of a loved one, or an addiction, or habitual sin, whatever is limiting your life.  Think of laying in a grave, there is no place to move, you are constricted, unable to move, tied up, and God says, from your graves, I will have you rise up.”  God wants life for us.  Jesus , the incarnate Word of God speaks this truth, “I AM the resurrection and the life.”  We are made to have His life in us.

There are three people raised from the dead, given to life, by Jesus in the Gospels.  The first one is the daughter of Jairus. Remember the little girl who died in her home when Jesus was on the way to heal her?  The daughter of Jairus. The second is the son of the widow of Naim.  Jesus sees the widow weeping as they brought out the body of her son, and Jesus is moved to raise him from the dead.  The third is of course, Lazarus.

St. Augustine offered a reflection on these three raisings.  Augustine says these three raisings stand for three types of spiritual death from which we can be raised by Jesus’ love and mercy.

Because Jairus’ daughter dies in her house, St. Augustine says that her death symbolizes the sort of spiritual death that remains locked up in us, the sort of sins that poisons us from the inside: the resentments, the old grudges.  They aren’t necessarily expressed in words or actions, they just sort of fester within us, poisoning our thoughts, isolating us from others 

The soul suffering from this sort of spiritual death might say, “Lord, I’m a good person, I don’t do a lot of evil things, so I must be fine”.  All the while there is anger and resentment and impatience stewing within. In this persons life you’ll see some broken, unmended relationships, and a lot of missed opportunities to go out in the life of the Spirit. Jesus raises the daughter of Jairus, dead in her house, , just as he wants to heal us from all of our interior sinful attitudes to increase in us the life of generosity and compassion.

Secondly, the son of the widow of Naim.  He had died and was being carried outside the house to the cemetery. St. Augustine says, the widow’s son symbolizes that spiritual death, that sin, that comes out from the heart and the mind and has begun to express itself in action.  Anger, resentment, impatience expressed in words and actions and gestures.  Jesus approaches this person too, and offers new life, a new way of interacting with others. 

The third person Jesus raises from the dead is our friend Lazarus.  Lazarus has been carried out of the house and placed in a tomb.  By the time Jesus gets there, Lazarus has been in the tomb for four days.  When the Lord instructs them to roll away the stone that blocks the tomb, his sister, famously says, “but Lord, surely,  there will be a stench.”

St. Augustine says that Lazarus in his grave, stinking and rotting, symbolizes that evil, that spiritual death, that not only has come out of the heart in words and actions, but has established itself as a habitual part of one’s life.  Now, the anger and the hatred and the violence and the lust and the greed, have come out, and have become such a part of my life and my activity, that, I have begun to stink, and it’s affecting the people around me—one’s family, one’s community, one’s nation or the world—depending on one’s position of influence. I think of the Hollywood Elites, Popular Musicians, and politiians..who, well, just stink, who set such bad example, especially for children. But Jesus offers new life to these souls as well. 

So we have these three types of sin, the interior, the exterior, and that…well…stinkiest, ugliest sort of sin.  I remember reading that Saint Christina, whose relics are stored at our diocesan Cathedral, by the way, would become nauseated when she was in the presence of people whose souls were dead and rotting because of mortal sin.

But, at the heart of today’s Gospel, is that Jesus does come, even to the grave of Lazarus, and he brings him back to life.  Jesus goes even into the furthest, smelliest, ugliest souls and invites us back to life.  

From time to time, a priest hears someone say, “Father, believe me, what I’ve done is so bad, even God can’t forgive me.  Don’t talk to me about confession because that won’t help.”  Not true. Nobody, not even those who are entrenched in evil are beyond the reach of the forgiving power of Christ.

Now looking at our own life, we might not be Lazarus, but it is highly unlikely that any of us are without a bit of grave rot. For those powers of death are always seeking to reclaim territory lost to Jesus. So the saints recommend frequent Sacramental Confession, to claim our lives for Christ once again.

This Wednesday, a guest priest and I will offer confessions from 5 to 8 here in the Church. If it’s been more than a year since your last confession, you are over due. 

Notice, too, that Martha and Mary, lead Jesus to the tomb of Lazarus. There are likely souls, who are dead and rotting, who we must lead Jesus to by our prayers and penances. We should never pretend, that just because it’s 2021, that some sins are now okay. And souls can live without a living relationship with Jesus Christ. It cannot be done. I know, it’s unpleasant to think that some souls are in danger of hell. But that should motivate us all the more to pray and evangelize.

For the Lord is willing to go to the deepest darkest places in order to bring forgiveness and healing and new life, but sometimes he wants us to lead him there.

May our conviction that he is the resurrection of life spurn us on in our Lenten journey to Easter, in the journey from sin and selfishness to new life, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: 5th Sunday of Lent 2017 - Rotting souls raised to life

 On this fifth Sunday of Lent we hear another of these magnificent 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 to 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.
 
As we near the end of Lent, these stories in John’s Gospel move toward a sort of crescendo.  He is living water, he says, “I am the light”.  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 death to reign in us at any level, physically, emotionally, spiritually.

We heard in our first reading about God’s desire to free us from the powers of the grave: “I will open your graves and have you rise from them.”  Of course, this can refer to the resurrection of our bodies when Christ returns. But he’s not just speaking of our final resting place here. The grave also wherever the powers of sin and evil and death reign in us: an addiction, a habitual sin, an inability or unwillingness to forgive, anger and bitterness, perversion, fear of leaving behind the comfortable to follow Christ more devoutly, lack of fervor for the spiritual life…the grave is whatever limits the life of God in you. Think of laying in a grave, there is no place to move, you are constricted, unable to move, tied up, and God says, from your graves, I will have you rise up.”

God’s desire to raise us to new life, can be seen in our wonderful Gospel story of the raising of Lazarus. But, Lazarus is not the only story of Jesus raising the dead in the Gospels. There are three raisings. Can you think of the other two?  The first one is the daughter of Jairus. Remember the little girl who died in her home when Jesus was on the way to heal her?  The second is the son of the widow of Naim.  Jesus sees the widow weeping as they brought out the body of her son, and Jesus is moved to raise him from the dead.  The third is of course, Lazarus.

St. Augustine offered a spiritual reading of these three encounters with the dead.

Because Jairus’ daughter dies in her house, St. Augustine says that her death symbolizes the sort of spiritual death that remains locked up in us, the sort of sins that poisons us from the inside: the resentments, the old grudges.  They aren’t necessarily expressed in words or actions, they just sort of fester within us, poisoning our thoughts, and our wills, and our imagination.  These are the sins we do in private—though no sin is private to God, of course. Jesus raises this little girl, just as he wants to heal us from all of our interior sinful attitudes.

Secondly, the son of the widow of Naim.  He had died and was being carried outside the house to the cemetery. St. Augustine says, he symbolizes the sins, that have begun to express themselves in action.  When the interior anger and resentment, selfishness and lust bubble over in words of actions. But Jesus forgives these too.

The third person Jesus raises from the dead, his friend Lazarus.  Lazarus had been carried out of the house and placed in a tomb.  By the time Jesus gets there, Lazarus has been in the tomb for four days.  His sister, famously says, when Jesus instructs them to roll away the stone that blocks the tomb, “but Lord, surely, there will be a stench.”

St. Augustine says that Lazarus in his grave, symbolizes that evil, that spiritual death, that not only has come out of the heart in words and actions, but has established itself as a habitual.  Now, the anger, the hatred, the violence, the lust, have taken root, and have become such a part of my life and my activity, that, like Lazarus in the tomb, there is a stench, and it’s affecting the people around me.  That anger, addiction, selfishness or lust now affects the well-being of the family. Neighbors begin to avoid us because of our stench.

There was a saint, Saint Christina would become nauseated when in the presence of someone who had an unrepented mortal sin. She could sense that their souls were dead and rotting.

So we have these three types of sin, the interior, the exterior, and that…well…stinkiest, ugliest sorts of sin.  But, at the heart of today’s Gospel, is the message that though our sins are foul, Jesus draws near to us, to bring life. Jesus goes to the smelliest, ugliest soul and invites them back to life.

From time to time, a priest hears someone say, “Father, believe me, what I’ve done is so bad, even God can’t forgive me.” But, our Gospel today says, “false, wrong!”  Nobody, not even those who are entrenched in evil are beyond the reach of the forgiving power of Christ.  He goes into those deepest darkest places, to bring us out of the disgusting muck of sin.

Jesus wept for Lazarus, under the sway of the powers of death.  It breaks God’s heart when we aren’t fully alive.  He doesn’t weep out of anger with us; he weeps when sin and death take his friends.

This Thursday, we will have a penance service. Through Sacramental Confession new life is available to the most hardened sinner. Every Catholic should go to Confession during the Lenten season. If you’ve already confessed, thanks be to God. If you haven’t come and allow Jesus to raise you out of the grave of sin and dysfunction, to release you from the constrictions of the grave, and to the new and flourishing life of grace, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.