Fifth Sunday of Lent

He cried out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” – John 11:43

       Two years ago, I wanted to get slim fast. So I found this “super diet shake” being sold by a friend who claimed it could slim me down in two weeks, even without exercise!

       I remembered all the money I lost and all the warnings of my parents who’ve also been “victims” of these marketing schemes. But this offer was too good to pass up. So I kept it a secret and bought it. It was the same old ending: The product ran out, I sprang back to my chubby self, I lost a five-digit investment, and I buried myself again in my self-dug grave.

      It wasn’t until a year later when I seriously wanted to get back in shape. My gym instructor refocused me on my goals. I exerted effort to eat well and exercise religiously. In four weeks, I lost more weight than I expected!

       Like the people of Israel, God wants us out of the graves of our sin and stubbornness. But we take the shortcut. We remain comfortable and slack. God opens our graves and calls us out, but we have to take a leap of faith to step into the light. Migs Ramirez (migsramirez.seminars@gmail.com)

Reflection: Will you let go of your shortcuts to live a better life?

Mary my Mother, be with me when I am stubborn. Gently nudge me and wake me up from the things I do so complacently. May I follow your Son more closely, especially in these days leading to His passion, death and resurrection. Amen.

St. Francis of Paola, hermit, pray for us.

Today, Ezekiel speaks about God’s promise of the resurrection. The Lord will raise the redeemed and the righteous from the dead and He will place His Spirit within them. They will live under the grace of His blessing and love. God gives us this same promise. Let us be worthy of that promise.

12 Thus says the Lord God: O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them, and bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and have you rise from them, O my people! 14 I will put my spirit in you that you may live, and I will settle you upon your land; thus you shall know that I am the Lord. I have promised, and I will do it, says the Lord.

R: With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.

1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice! 2 Let your ears be attentive to my voice in supplication. (R) 3 If you, O Lord, mark iniquities, Lord, who can stand? 4 But with you is forgiveness, that you may be revered. (R) 5 I trust in the Lord; my soul trusts in his word. 6 More than sentinels wait for the dawn, 7 let Israel wait for the Lord. (R) For with the Lord is kindness and with him is plenteous redemption; 8 and he will redeem Israel from all their iniquities. (R)

The Holy Spirit empowers us to live as Christians. We need the Spirit’s guidance so that the world’s way will not overwhelm us. Let us surrender to the Holy Spirit — the grace of baptism — that the power of the resurrection may manifest in us. Let us be witnesses of the Gospel to others.

8 Brothers and sisters: Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 But you are not in the flesh; on the contrary, you are in the spirit, if only the Spirit of God dwells in you. Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit that dwelling in you.

Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. This heralds Jesus’ own resurrection and the promised rising of the redeemed by His grace. It is difficult to understand this without the hindsight of faith. Let us learn from the traditions of the Church and the wisdom of the saints as we study the Scriptures.

I am the resurrection and the life; says the Lord; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will never die.

3 The sisters of Lazarus sent word to Jesus, saying, “Master, the one you love is ill.” 4 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.” 5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So when he heard that he was ill, he remained for two days in the place where he was. 7 Then after this he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.” 17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him; but Mary sat at home. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” 27 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.” 33 He became perturbed and deeply troubled, 34 and said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Sir, come and see.” 35 And Jesus wept. 36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him.” 37 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?” 38 So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay across it. 39 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.” 40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus raised his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you for hearing me. 42 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.” 43 And when he had said this, he cried out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, tied hand and foot with burial bands, and his face was wrapped in a cloth. So Jesus said14to them, “Untie him and let him go.” 45 Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary and seen what he had done began to believe in him.

think: If you could raise someone from the dead, who would it be? Why?

Read the Bible in one year Exodus 10-12

T O D A Y’S BLESSING LIST

thank You, Lord, for: ______________________________________________________

New life is more than just life; life that will never end; life that can accrue even from death... This is today’s good news.

     People are entombed for many reasons, under many forms and guises. Ignorance buries so many of our countrymen. People lie half-dead, no longer caring for a country awash in corruption. We are immersed in a culture that is life-disabling.

       Today, the First Reading from Ezekiel oozes with hope. This is the good news that God desires and has the power to bring life even out of death, to make us rise from our tombs, and make us settle in our land. But God’s vision and promise ought to be our desire, too. He needs a little help from us, and it starts with our own desire for life, not death. It starts with our own efforts at doing what St. Paul counsels us — to leave behind life “in the flesh” and pursue one “in the Spirit.”

       We need to look closely at what life is all about. And Martha, for all her busybody attitude, might have understood it a little better than we do. She knew, that, first, “had He been there, her brother would not have died.” Second, she knew that “whatever He would ask of God, He would grant it.” She knew, too, that her brother “would rise, in the resurrection on the last day.” But what she did not know was the big surprise that God was, and is, a God of life, there and then — and even here and now.

        After the Lord has walked her through her ignorance, tears, sorrow and grief, Martha knew much, much more. But by then, it was not just a matter of knowing. It became a matter of faith: “Yes, Lord, I have come to believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.” No one does it better than He who died and gave Himself “that we might have life — life in its fullness.” Fr. Chito Dimaranan, SDB

---------- REFLECTION QUESTION ----------

Do you pursue a life “in the Spirit”?

Lord Jesus, Son of the living God, let me live for You and You alone. Amen.