Fifth Sunday of Lent: Reflections
The following message by Sister Sharon McMillan, SNDdeN was provided by the Congregational Mission Office:
Read: John 11: 1-45
Reflect: On the Third, Fourth and Fifth Sundays of Lent this year, we have been listening in on the Church’s most intimate and spiritual preparation for those who will be baptized at the Easter Vigil. The Gospel readings for these weeks are the stories of the woman at the well (or the Samaritan woman), the man born blind, and the raising of Lazarus. These Gospel passages from St. John’s Gospel are the ancient and traditional choice of the early Christian Church in Rome to put before their catechumens with the questions " What do you thirst for? Who are you thirsting for? What are your blindnesses? How might Jesus open your eyes and your heart? Are there any patterns which are self-destructive in your behavior? What are your deepest longings for life and resurrection?” And we, the baptized, have the joy of listening in on these iconic Gospel stories and asking ourselves these same questions as we prepare to baptize the catechumens and to publicly renew our own baptismal vows before God and one another.
Today’s Gospel offers us a scene of conversations between Jesus, his disciples, and the sisters of Jesus’ friend Lazarus who has died. The sisters, Martha and Mary, come to deeper faith in Jesus who reveals to them, in the face of the grievous loss of their brother, that he is the resurrection and the life. Jesus is not just the one who reminds us of the resurrection; he is not just the one who provides life. Jesus IS the resurrection and the life. Death has no power over him. And death has no power over anyone whom Jesus calls to “Come out!” of whatever grave or tomb a person might be trapped in. Jesus uses the death of his dear friend Lazarus as an opportunity to reveal the Father’s almighty power over the grave and over all death. The catechumens and we the baptized immerse ourselves in this powerful Gospel, asking Jesus, Lord of life, to call us out of any tombs in which we find ourselves, and to fill us with his life-giving Spirit.
 
John 11: 1-45
Now a man was ill, Lazarus from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who had anointed the Lord with perfumed oil and dried his feet with her hair; it was her brother Lazarus who was ill. So the sisters sent word to him saying, “Master, the one you love is ill.” When Jesus heard this he said, “This illness is not to end in death, but is for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
 
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that he was ill, he remained for two days in the place where he was. Then after this he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.” The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you, and you want to go back there?” Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in a day? If one walks during the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if one walks at night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” He said this, and then told them, “Our friend Lazarus is asleep, but I am going to awaken him.” So the disciples said to him, “Master, if he is asleep, he will be saved.” But Jesus was talking about his death, while they thought that he meant ordinary sleep. So then Jesus said to them clearly, “Lazarus has died. And I am glad for you that I was not there, that you may believe. Let us go to him.” So Thomas, called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go to die with him.”
 
When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, only about two miles away. And many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him; but Mary sat at home. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.”
 
Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise.” Martha said to him, “I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.”
 
When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary secretly, saying, “The teacher is here and is asking for you.” As soon as she heard this, she rose quickly and went to him. For Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still where Martha had met him. So when the Jews who were with her in the house comforting her saw Mary get up quickly and go out, they followed her, presuming that she was going to the tomb to weep there. When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping, he became perturbed and deeply troubled, and said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Sir, come and see.” And Jesus wept. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him.” But some of them said, “Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man have done something so that this man would not have died?”
 
So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay across it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the dead man’s sister, said to him, “Lord, by now there will be a stench; he has been dead for four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus raised his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you for hearing me. I know that you always hear me, but because of the crowd here, I have said this, that they may believe that you sent me.” And when he had said this, He cried out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, tied hand and foot with burial bands, and his face was wrapped in a cloth. So Jesus said to them, “Untie him and let him go.”
 
Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary and seen what he had done began to believe in him.
 
Sister Sharon McMillan, SNDdeN currently ministers at her local Parish, San Carlos Cathedral, in the Diocese of Monterey, California. She is also an adjunct professor of liturgy and sacraments in the Graduate Program of Pastoral Ministries at the nearby Jesuit university, Santa Clara University. One of the highlights of every year for her is the singing of the litany of the saints at the Sisters’ Jubilee celebration held in the Notre Dame Chapel in Belmont. Jubilarians send her the names of beloved SNDs who were so significant in their formation but who are now at home with God, as well as the names of beloved deceased family members. She weaves them into a litany sung by all — with joy and plenty of tears. Sister Sharon currently ministers at her local Parish, San Carlos Cathedral, in the Diocese of Monterey, California, in the areas of liturgy and ministerial formation. She also thoroughly enjoys teaching liturgy and sacramental theology for her Diocese and for the neighboring Diocese of San Jose. She writes a weekly column for her parish bulletin on the Sunday readings to keep reflecting on the Word!