“Lazarus, Come Forth!”
Today on this, Fifth Sunday of Lent we reflect on the story of the Raising of Lazarus. We are so familiar with this story that many times when it comes up for Sunday Mass we don’t listen to it. Our minds wonder because we’ve heard it before and we think there’s nothing more for us to learn from it. Even the fact that Jesus raises someone from the dead, does not stir us because well, that’s what Jesus does and everybody knows that. That is so very sad because in this Gospel passage Jesus reveals so much to us about who He is, how much He cares about all of us and what He wants for each of us. Jesus wept at the death of His friend. And we have to realize this: we are Lazarus. We are in the tomb; in many ways we are spiritually dead. If we are not going to confession on regular basis, we are in the tomb. If we don’t realize that we are sinners, we are spiritually dead. If we think we are better than others and look down on them we are in the tomb. If we fail to forgive others or refuse to seek forgiveness we are in the tomb. If we continue to allow past hurts to victimize us we are spiritually dead. When Jesus sees us in this condition He becomes perturbed; He weeps for us. When we are bound by sin He comes to rescue us, to command that that the “stone’ that is locking us in be taken away, to use us to glorify God, to make us whole, to give us new life and to “untie” us so that we might be set free. But there is something that we must do; we must answer His call to “Come forth!” And that’s where the stumbling block might be, because it can get rather, comfortable, it can make us feel safe and we can come to like it in there and it might be pretty scary for us to come out of the tomb. At this point you might say, “But how do I come out, how do I respond to Jesus’ call to come out of the tomb?” That’s what all the disciplines of Lent, are all about; that is what our prayer, fasting and almsgiving is all about. Our growth in prayer is about freeing us to be in a relationship of such love and such trust with the Lord that we know that He will never leave us and that we never need to cling to an one else or anything else in this world and that His desire for us and our own desires are truly the same. Through increased prayer we strive to gradually bring ourselves to pray that God’s will be done, and not our own. Fasting is about freeing ourselves from anyone or anything that is not God. It is about making us strong and setting us free. Almsgiving is about setting us free from money and thereby truly making ourselves free to put God first and giving Him our hearts so that we can be His disciples. Lent is about making us ready to “Come forth” at Jesus’ call, so that He can set us free and give us new life in Him.