Scott Hahn with David Scott
As we draw near to the end of Lent, today’s Gospel clearly has Jesus’ passion and death in view.
That’s why John gives us the detail about Lazarus’ sister, Mary—that she is the one who anointed the Lord for burial (see John 12:3,7). His disciples warn against returning to Judea; Thomas even predicts they will “die with Him” if they go back.
When Lazarus is raised, John notices the tombstone being taken away, as well as Lazarus’ burial cloths and head covering—all details he later notices with Jesus’ empty tomb (see John 20:1,6,7).
Like the blind man in last week’s readings, Lazarus represents all humanity. He stands for “dead man”—for all those Jesus loves and wants to liberate from the bands of sin and death.
John even recalls the blind man in his account today (see John 11:37). Like the man’s birth in blindness, Lazarus’ death is used by Jesus to reveal “the glory of God” (see John 9:3). And again like last week, Jesus’ words and deeds give sight to those who believe (see John 11:40).
If we believe, we will see—that Jesus loves each of us as He loved Lazarus, that He calls us out of death and into new life.
By His Resurrection Jesus has fulfilled Ezekiel’s promise in today’s First Reading. He has opened the graves that we may rise, put His Spirit in us that we may live. This is the Spirit that Paul writes of in today’s Epistle. The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead will give life to we who were once dead in sin.
Faith is the key. If we believe as Martha does in today’s Gospel—that Jesus is the resurrection and the life—even if we die, we will live.
“I have promised and I will do it,” the Father assures us in the First Reading. We must trust in His word, as we sing in today’s Psalm—that with Him is forgiveness and salvation.
St. Gregory of Nazianzen
Sermon on Holy Baptism
“Lazarus, come out!” Laid to rest in the tomb, you heard the resounding call. Is there any voice greater than that of the Word? Then you came out, you who were dead not merely for four days but for a very long time indeed. You were raised with Christ…; your burial bands fell to the ground.
Do not fall back again now into death; do not rejoin those who dwell in the tombs; do not allow yourself to be stifled by the burial bands of your sins. For would you be able to come back to life once again? Would you be able to bring out from the death of here below the resurrection of all men at the end of time?…
So let the Lord’s call resound in your ears! Do not close them today to the teaching and admonitions of the Lord. If you used to be blind, without light in your tomb, open your eyes lest you sink into the sleep of death. In the light of the Lord, behold light; in the Spirit of God, fix your eyes on the Son.
If you take to yourself the Word in its entirety then you focus onto your soul all the power of Christ who heals and restores to life… Don’t be afraid to put some work into preserving your baptismal purity and set the ways that lead to the Lord within your heart. Take care to preserve the act of acquittal, which you received through pure grace…
Let us be light, as the disciples learned from he who is the great Light: “You are the light of the world” (Mt 5,14). Let us be lamps in this world by holding up on high the Word of life, by being a life force for others. Let us set out in search of God, in search of the one who is the first and purest of lights.
St. Peter Chrysologus
Sermon 64 (PL 52, 379)
“When Jesus saw Mary weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping, he became perturbed and deeply troubled…”Mary is weeping, the Jews are weeping, even Christ is weeping, but do you think they all feel the same sorrow? Mary, the dead man’s sister, weeps because she could not hold on to her brother or keep him from dying.
She may well be convinced of the resurrection but the loss of her best support, the thought of his cruel absence, the sadness of long separation all cause tears to well up that she cannot restrain… The implacable picture of death cannot fail to touch and overcome us, however great our faith. The Jews were also weeping at the remembrance of their mortal condition because they despaired of eternity… Mere mortals cannot fail to weep before death.
Which of these reasons for sadness held Christ in its grip? None? Then why is he weeping? He had said: “Lazarus is dead, and I rejoice.”.. But see how he sheds mortal tears at the very moment of communicating the Spirit of life once more! My brethren, such is man! Tears well up when he is affected by joy as much as by sorrow, …
Christ did not weep for the desolation of death but at the memory of happiness, he who with his word, only one word, was to awaken all the dead to eternal life (Jn 5,48)… How could we think that Christ would have wept from human weakness when the heavenly Father weeps for his prodigal son, not when he departs but at the moment of finding him again? (Lk 15,20)… He allowed Lazarus to die because he desired to raise the dead man as a manifestation of his glory. He allowed his friend to descend to the region of the dead that God might appear in his bringing the man back from hell.
Saint John Damascene
Triodion of matins for the Saturday of Lazarus, Odes 6-9
“And Jesus wept. So the Jews said: See how he loved him”
O Lord, since you are true God you knew about Lazarus’s sleep and had made it known to your disciples… Since you are true man, who nevertheless are without limit, you came to Bethany. True man, you wept upon Lazarus; true God, you raised, by your will, this man who had been dead for four days. O Lord, have mercy on me too; my sins are numerous. I beg you, come, pull me out of the abyss of evil. It is to you that I cry; listen to my prayer, God of my salvation.
After weeping for your friend, in your compassion you put an end to Martha’s tears, and through your voluntary Passion you wipe away the tears from all faces (Is 25:8). “Blessed be the Lord, the God of our Fathers” (Ezr 7:27). You, the guardian of life, cried out to the dead man as if he were sleeping. With a word you tore open the belly of hell and raised him who then began to sing: “Blessed be the Lord, the God of my Fathers”. Raise me up too, I who am strangled by the ties of my sins, and I will then sing to you: “Blessed be the Lord, the God of our Fathers”…
In her gratitude, Mary brings you, O Lord, a pound of costly perfumed oil as a due for her brother (Jn 12:3) and she sings to you forever and ever. As mortal you pray the Father, as God you awaken Lazarus. This is why we sing to you, O Christ, forever and ever… You awaken Lazarus, a man dead for four days, you raise him from his tomb, making of him a true witness of your resurrection on the third day. You walk, you weep, you talk, O my Savior, showing us your human nature; but by raising Lazarus you reveal to us your divine nature. In such an unparallelled way as this, O Lord my Saviour, by your two natures and with sovereign power you accomplished my salvation.
Pope Benedict XVI
Angelus Address, March 9, 2008
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
In our Lenten journey we have reached the Fifth Sunday, characterized by the Gospel of the resurrection of Lazarus (Jn 11: 1-45). It concerns the last “sign” fulfilled by Jesus, after which the chief priests convened the Sanhedrin and deliberated killing him, and decided to kill the same Lazarus who was living proof of the divinity of Christ, the Lord of life and death. Actually, this Gospel passage shows Jesus as true Man and true God. First of all, the Evangelist insists on his friendship with Lazarus and his sisters, Martha and Mary. He emphasizes that “Jesus loved” them (Jn 11: 5), and this is why he wanted to accomplish the great wonder. “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him out of sleep” (Jn 11: 11), he tells his disciples, expressing God’s viewpoint on physical death with the metaphor of sleep. God sees it exactly as sleep, from which he can awaken us. Jesus has shown an absolute power regarding this death, seen when he gives life back to the widow of Nain’s young son (cf. Lk 7: 11-17) and to the 12 year-old girl (cf. Mk 5: 35-43). Precisely concerning her he said: “The child is not dead but sleeping” (Mk 5: 39), attracting the derision of those present. But in truth it is exactly like this: bodily death is a sleep from which God can awaken us at any moment.
This lordship over death does not impede Jesus from feeling sincere “com-passion” for the sorrow of detachment. Seeing Martha and Mary and those who had come to console them weeping, Jesus “was deeply moved in spirit and troubled”, and lastly, “wept” (Jn 11: 33, 35). Christ’s heart is divine-human: in him God and man meet perfectly, without separation and without confusion. He is the image, or rather, the incarnation of God who is love, mercy, paternal and maternal tenderness, of God who is Life. Therefore, he solemnly declared to Martha: “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die”. And he adds, “Do you believe this?” (Jn 11: 25-26). It is a question that Jesus addresses to each one of us: a question that certainly rises above us, rises above our capacity to understand, and it asks us to entrust ourselves to him as he entrusted himself to the Father. Martha’s response is exemplary: “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, he who is coming into the world” (Jn 11: 27). Yes, O Lord! We also believe, notwithstanding our doubts and darkness; we believe in you because you have the words of eternal life. We want to believe in you, who give us a trustworthy hope of life beyond life, of authentic and full life in your Kingdom of light and peace.
We entrust this prayer to Mary Most Holy. May her intercession strengthen our faith and hope in Jesus, especially in moments of greater trial and difficulty.
After the Angelus:
In recent days, violence and horror have again stained the Holy Land, nurturing a spiral of destruction and death that seems endless. While I invite you to insistently implore the All-Powerful Lord for the gift of peace for that region, I wish to entrust the many innocent victims to his mercy and express my solidarity with their families and the injured.
Furthermore, I encourage the Israeli and Palestinian Authorities in their proposal to continue to build, through negotiations, a peaceful and just future for their Peoples, and I ask all in God’s Name to leave the twisted ways of hate and vengeance and to responsibly walk the path of dialogue and trust.
My greetings to all the English-speaking visitors and pilgrims, especially to the members of the European Parents Association and to the staff and students of Saint Patrick’s Evangelization School from Soho, London. In this Sunday’s Gospel, we hear how Jesus raised his friend Lazarus from the dead. We also hear how Martha, in the midst of her grief, was able to make her great profession of faith: “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, he who is coming into the world.” As we approach the season of Our Lord’s Passion, we pray that our own faith may be strengthened, so that we too can place all our hope in him who is the resurrection and the life. Upon all of you here today, and upon your families and loved ones at home, I invoke God’s abundant blessings.
This is also my hope for Iraq, while we still tremble for the fate of Archbishop Rahho and of many Iraqi people who continue to undergo a blind and absurd violence, certainly contrary to God’s will.
I wish a good Sunday to all.
Pope Benedict XVI
Angelus Address, April 10, 2011
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
There are only two weeks to go until Easter and the Bible Readings of this Sunday all speak about resurrection. It is not yet that of Jesus, which bursts in as an absolute innovation, but our own resurrection, to which we aspire and which Christ himself gave to us, in rising from the dead. Indeed, death represents a wall as it were, which prevents us from seeing beyond it; yet our hearts reach out beyond this wall and even though we cannot understand what it conceals, we nevertheless think about it and imagine it, expressing with symbols our desire for eternity.
The Prophet Ezekiel proclaimed to the Jewish people, exiled far from the land of Israel, that God would open the graves of the dead and bring them home to rest in peace (cf. Ez 37:12-14). This ancestral aspiration of man to be buried together with his forefathers is the longing for a “homeland” which welcomes us at the end of our earthly toil. This concept does not yet contain the idea of a personal resurrection from death, which only appears towards the end of the Old Testament, and even in Jesus’ time was not accepted by all Judeans. Among Christians too, faith in the resurrection and in life is often accompanied by many doubts and much confusion because it also always concerns a reality which goes beyond the limits of our reason and requires an act of faith.
In today’s Gospel — the raising of Lazarus — we listen to the voice of faith from the lips of Martha, Lazarus’ sister. Jesus said to her: “Your brother will rise again,” and she replies: “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day” (Jn 11:23-24). But Jesus repeats: “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live” (Jn 11:25-26). This is the true newness which abounds and exceeds every border! Christ pulls down the wall of death and in him dwells all the fullness of God, who is life, eternal life. Therefore death did not have power over him and the raising of Lazarus is a sign of his full dominion over physical death which, before God, resembles sleep (cf. Jn 11:11).
However there is another death, which cost Christ the hardest struggle, even the price of the Cross: it is spiritual death and sin which threaten to ruin the existence of every human being. To overcome this death, Christ died and his Resurrection is not a return to past life, but an opening to a new reality, a “new land” united at last with God’s Heaven. Therefore St Paul writes: “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit who dwells in you” (Rom 8:11).
Dear brothers and sisters, let us turn to the Virgin Mary, who previously shared in this Resurrection, so that she may help us to say faithfully: “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God” (Jn 11:27), to truly discover that he is our salvation.
After the Angelus:
I offer a warm greeting to all the English-speaking visitors present for this Lenten Angelus prayer, including those from the Cathedral School of Skara, Sweden. In today’s Gospel, Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead as a sign that he himself is “the resurrection and the life” (Jn 11:25). Let us renew our faith in Christ’s promises as we prepare to unite ourselves to the Church’s celebration of the Paschal Mystery. Upon you and your families I invoke the Lord’s abundant blessings! I wish everyone a good Sunday and a good week. I thank you all, have a good Sunday!
