5 Sunday

th

Cycle A
2 April 2017

Elk. 37: 12-14

Rom. 8: 8-11
John 11: 1-45
 The Gospel from 3rd to 5th INTRODUCTION:
Sunday come as in a
crescendo: thirst blindness
death:

all metaphors for the

spiritual dysfunctions
we find ourselves in.
INTRODUCTION:
To the woman at the well, Jesus
presents himself as living water that
satiates all our longings.
To the man born blind, Jesus is
the light that heals our blind eyes.
Now in raising Lazarus, Jesus
presents himself as resurrection
and life to someone who is dead.
INTRODUCTION:

We Sinners are thirsty and nothing

in the world can satisfy us fully; blind
and no worldly pattern can allow us
to see clearly; dead and none of us
can bring himself back to life.
1
In our culture where the Ego reigns
supreme, this acknowledgment of
utter helplessness, of being lost
with no recourse is very important
because it opens us to the Christian
reality of our need for a savior.
is our Savior who comes to
save us.
2
There are three episodes of raising
from the dead in the Gospels:
1. the daughter of Jairus whom Jesus
called Talitha Kuomi in Mark 5: 21;
2. the only elderly son of the Widow of
Naim in Luke 7:1
3. and this one of Lazarus.
2
Each of these symbolize, according to
St. Augustine, different
levels of spiritual death.
Jairus' daughter represents the first stirrings of
sin.
The elder son being brought out of the house for
burial stands for more serious types of sin
and Lazarus -- now four days in the tomb --
represents one totally sunk in sin and irretrievably
dead.
3 Let us concentrate for now how
Jesus deals with his dead friend
Lazarus:
*"Jesus became perturbed and deeply
troubled." (v. 33) The Incarnation
involves the taking-on by God of our
human nature in all its peculiarity.

God felt what it is like to lose a

friend, even to the point that "Jesus wept." (v. 35)
3 Let us concentrate for now how
Jesus deals with his dead friend
Lazarus:
*In the Gospels, Jesus is described as weeping three
times:
over Jerusalem for its lack of faith
(Mt. 23:37//Lk. 13:31);
in the Garden of Gethsemani in fear and sorrow
(Lk.22:44) and
here at the death of Lazarus.
3
Imagine your
worst enemy --
or your best
friend

-- weeping in sorrow, but now God no less is

weeping in sorrow over our sin and death! That
is how seriously God takes our sins!
3
*"Where have you laid him?" (v.34)

God is looking for his friend, reminiscent of

Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden after
the fall when they were hiding from Him
because they were ashamed to Him and God
was looking for them and us because we have
wandered away from His presence.
3
*"Jesus came to the tomb. It was a
cave and a stone lay across it.
"Take away the stone,"
Jesus directed. (v. 38)

The description of the tomb

reminds us of Jesus' own tomb
at the Resurrection.
3
*". . . He cried out in a loud voice:
'Lazarus, come out!" (v. 43)

Jesus' words are creative unlike ours which

are only descriptive! Because he is who says
he is what Jesus says is! His voice is the voice
that spoke at Creation and it came to be.
3
By the way, the same
voice that said to
Jairus' daughter
"Talitha Kuomi!" and
to Lazarus, "Come out!"
is the same voice that
says to the bread and
wine at the Eucharistic "This is my body
Table: This is my blood!"
3

*"The dead man came out, tied hand and

foot with the burial bands, his face wrapt
in a cloth. So Jesus said to them:
"Untie him and let him go!"(v. 44)
 CONCLUSION/APPLICATION:

The point of the story is who cares where you

are now or how deep in death you may be? God
hates death and the ways of death and so He
says to you and me: "Untie him and let him go!"
Listen to that voice and allow the Lord to say to
you and me: "Untie him and let him go!"
 CONCLUSION/APPLICATION:

God is pleading to our

President Digong and to
the Lawmakers of the
Land on behalf of the
convicts and criminals and
addicts of all kinds:
"Untie them and let them go!"
 CONCLUSION/APPLICATION:

Mr. President, what the Church and the

Bishops you curse are doing is
rehabilitating the victims of your
War on Drugs.
 CONCLUSION:

The addicts who die whether death under

investigation or killed during police operation
are in fact summary execution or EJK

but alas also the victims

of disconnection from
the society we have
made all these years! +ART