| Bread From Heaven Meditations on the Sunday Gospel for the Year of the Eucharist |
| Fifth Week of Lent Beginning Sunday March 13th, 2005 |
| The Word of the Lord |
| The sisters of Lazarus sent word to Jesus, 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." 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. 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, "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." 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. - John 11:3-7, 17, 20-27, 33b-45 |
| THE BACKGROUND |
| Jesus the Apostles and You |
Imagine yourself as one of Jesus’ disciples. He gets
word that a friend is dying but he tells you “don’t worry this
illness will not end in death.” Jesus has done greater
miracles than foretelling whether someone will die or not so
you take him at his word. Then two days later he appears
to change his mind, telling you that Lazarus is dead, and
then asks you to set off with him for Bethany. Does
confusion enter your heart? It seems that he had assured
you of one thing and now the opposite happens. Not only
this, but as Thomas points out, going back into Judea
means putting your lives at risk. Confusion, and in the
midst of it, he asks you to risk all for Him. What goes
through your mind and heart? What gives him the authority
to ask such a thing? What enters your heart when you get
to Bethany and see everyone crying? Embarrassment? Do
you listen to the murmuring about “Jesus’ lack of love, his
needless delay of two days? Why didn’t Jesus prevent this
evil? How could someone good let something like this
happen?”
What occurs in you when you finally see the whole of
his plan? When he cries out to Lazarus to arise? When you
see with your own eyes a dead man come back to life?
word that a friend is dying but he tells you “don’t worry this
illness will not end in death.” Jesus has done greater
miracles than foretelling whether someone will die or not so
you take him at his word. Then two days later he appears
to change his mind, telling you that Lazarus is dead, and
then asks you to set off with him for Bethany. Does
confusion enter your heart? It seems that he had assured
you of one thing and now the opposite happens. Not only
this, but as Thomas points out, going back into Judea
means putting your lives at risk. Confusion, and in the
midst of it, he asks you to risk all for Him. What goes
through your mind and heart? What gives him the authority
to ask such a thing? What enters your heart when you get
to Bethany and see everyone crying? Embarrassment? Do
you listen to the murmuring about “Jesus’ lack of love, his
needless delay of two days? Why didn’t Jesus prevent this
evil? How could someone good let something like this
happen?”
What occurs in you when you finally see the whole of
his plan? When he cries out to Lazarus to arise? When you
see with your own eyes a dead man come back to life?
| TALKING WITH GOD - Lord, I am Lazarus. I am that one who speeds you on your way to your crucifixion. It is the spiritual death of my sin that draws you out of Heaven. In your foolish love for me, you return, knowing that to give me life, will cost you yours. The master forfeits his life for his slave, the King lies down in place of his subject. Jesus, I want to love like this. I want to love you back in the poor and in those who give me the most aggravation in my life. I desire to love like You, the one who never stops to count the cost. |
| Conversation Starters with God: Lord, I do want to love like you without counting the cost. Reveal to me the ways I have been “measuring” out my love. Reveal to me the ways I ration my time, my money, my talents instead of pouring myself out for You and your presence in those I am closest with. [pause and listen] Lord, you gave all for me. To my mind it cannot make sense: the infinite holy God goes to the Cross so that I a fallen sinner might live. Make my life a worthy offering in response to such an incredible sacrifice. [Pause and ponder over the depth of this Love] Jesus, you are the Life of the World. Lord in this life, sometimes I don’t quite see your full plan. Sometimes it seems like people are suffering needlessly, that evil abounds. [bring before the Lord those people and situations which involve suffering, pain, and evil] Help me to ponder your divine plan. Help me to realize that your ways are so much higher than mine. Help me to Trust in the Love of a God who would die for me. |
| QUOTES ON THE EUCHARIST |
Jesus is on earth in the Blessed Sacrament. Why? In
order that we might come to him now no less than his
contemporaries did in first century Palestine. If we thus
approach him in loving faith, there is no limit to the
astounding things he will do. Why not? In the Eucharist he
has the same human lips that told the raging storm, "Be
still" and commanded the dead man, "Lazarus, come forth!"
There are no limitations to Christ's power, as God,
which he exercises through his humanity in the Eucharist.
The only limitation is our own weakness of faith or lack of
confidence in his almighty love.
- Fr. John Hardon, SJ
order that we might come to him now no less than his
contemporaries did in first century Palestine. If we thus
approach him in loving faith, there is no limit to the
astounding things he will do. Why not? In the Eucharist he
has the same human lips that told the raging storm, "Be
still" and commanded the dead man, "Lazarus, come forth!"
There are no limitations to Christ's power, as God,
which he exercises through his humanity in the Eucharist.
The only limitation is our own weakness of faith or lack of
confidence in his almighty love.
- Fr. John Hardon, SJ
LET US PRAY – An Act of Contrition
O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest
all my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven, and the pains of hell;
but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, Who are all good
and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy
grace, to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life.
Amen.
O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest
all my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven, and the pains of hell;
but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, Who are all good
and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy
grace, to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life.
Amen.
| BACK TO Year of the Eucharist Page |
| This passage strikingly reveals not only Jesus’ divinity (by the fact that he has full authority over life and death) but also Jesus’ humanity in that he is “perturbed” and also in that “Jesus wept.” Jesus might be expected to be very emotional during this episode, for underlying this passage Jesus has made a hugely significant decision in returning to Bethany to raise Lazarus to life, for Jesus has in fact now forfeited his own human life. Those mysterious words of Thomas reveal the fact. “Let us go to die with him.” Thomas and Jesus both know that if Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, the Pharisees will become so fearful of his growing popularity with the people that they will put him to death. In fact the very next passage of the Gospel says “So from that day on they took counsel about how to put him to death. Jesus therefore no longer went about openly among the Jews.” |