Rev. Fr. (Dr.) Osmond Anike
Readings:
First Reading: Ezekiel 37: 12-14 – I am going to open your graves…, to raise you from your graves.
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 129 (130) – With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.
Second Reading: Romans 8:8-11 – The Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you.
Gospel: John 11:1-45 – The raising of Lazarus from the dead (I am the resurrection and the life).

The theme of today’s readings centers on death and resurrection. First, it was Ezekiel who prophesized, in the first reading, the opening of our graves and the raising us up from our graves. Then St. Paul tells us in the second reading that though our bodies may be dead, with Christ in us, our spirit is life itself. Finally, in the gospel, Jesus literally raised Lazarus from the dead.

Now, focusing on this dramatic raising of Lazarus from the dead, it would be observed that Jesus deliberately delayed the miracle until Lazarus had been dead for four days.
Why was this so? The popular Jewish belief was that soul and body were finally separated after three days of somebody’s death, with no hope of resuscitation. Before then, there could be a chance (even if very slim) of somebody being resuscitated from the dead. For Jesus to have performed the miracle after Lazarus had been buried for four day,
would have convinced even the most disbelieving of his audience that this was no fluke at all. Jesus’ own resurrection from the dead after three days was not just a happenstance. It harmonizes with this Jewish belief to demonstrate that his resurrection was nothing short of an incontrovertible miracle. We can thus see that the raising of Lazarus from the dead is a pointer to Jesus’ own resurrection.

But what was the motive for this sign? Certainly, one cannot interpret it as compassion. It was obvious that Jesus had great sympathy for his close friends – Martha and Mary – over the loss of their brother; and even expressed his own personal grief by “weeping” over the death of his friend Lazarus. But if this miracle was meant to be a sign of compassion, he would have come speedily to heal him before he died. Remember he was informed of his illness ahead of time, but he delayed his going to see him until he was sure he was dead. Moreover, it is hardly a compassionate act to bring somebody back from the peace of death to the trials and sufferings of this life. Recall that Jesus himself said that Lazarus was “resting”. Imagine somebody infected with this new coronavirus, and after many months of excruciating suffering he/she dies and finally gets the chance to rest, only to be brought back again into this world full of suffering and diseases. Such action cannot be viewed as compassionate. The true motive of Jesus’ action was stated by Jesus himself: “It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by means of it”.

Jesus is interested in taking away the stones and unbinding us so that we could be free. But alas, a lot of people have either consciously or unconsciously chosen not to be free.
Such people are already dead, and are only waiting to be buried. They live mechanical lives. They are controlled by others. In this age of technology, imagine the so-called “intelligent” cars that can drive autonomously.
It might be intriguing to see how such a car is able to control itself without a human driver. It can stop at red traffic lights; apply brakes to avoid collision with objects; neatly park itself in the car park without scratching other vehicles; etc. We are often thrilled and pour accolades on such a car. But in actual fact, the car has no life of its own.
It is being controlled by another. The information a human being feeds into it is the information it is going to carry out.
If the human engineer does not feed the information to the censors to stop at a red traffic light, the vehicle will not stop. In summary, the vehicle does not live; it merely exists. Tragically, this is the summary of most of our lives – we merely exist; we do not live.

Who then is Lazarus? Putting aside the historical Lazarus for a while, let us take Lazarus as representing every believer who loves Jesus and is loved by him; whom the Lord will raise up on the last day. Therefore, when Jesus says, “Take away the stone and unbind him and let him go”, he is speaking not only to the historical event of Lazarus’ resurrection,
but more deeply, to every believer’s condition. He is saying to all of us in effect, “Release from the stony heart of sin; let go to life in God”.

Brethren, Jesus has taken away the stone and unbound us. Let us therefore have the courage to come out of our graves and begin to live. When we shall have begun to live, we would discover that the world is still as good as God created it. Nothing has really changed except our conception of the world; our manner of looking at the world. When you change your concept, the world will change.

And when we do not live, we are in the grave: As long as you still see some people as freeborn and others as slaves, you are in the grave.
As long as you see yourself as superior and others as inferior, you are in the grave. As long as you discriminate based on the color of the skin or place of origin, you are in the grave. As long as you see some people as friends and others as enemies, you are in the grave. As long as you see some people as good and others as bad, you are in the grave.
These are prejudices fed into you by others – your society, your culture, your religion, your parents, your teachers, etc. When will you begin to live your own life?

Finally, the dramatic weeping of Jesus was not just because of Lazarus. He wept at the ignorance of those who saw death as the finality, whereas He – the resurrection and life – was standing before them. When you begin to live, you will no longer be bothered about death because, alive or dead, we belong to the Lord. Sometimes we worry so much about death that we totally forget to live. The renowned and highly influential scientist, Albert Einstein, once said that, “the tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives”. Remember, before you face death, you need to have lived – not mechanical lives, but real lives. Our individual graves have been opened; let us come out them today and begin to live.