April 27^th 2014. Second Sunday of Easter. Feast of the Divine Mercy

Gospel: John 20:19-31

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

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Your translator will attend the canonisations of Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II in Rome next Sunday. For that reason it hasn't been possible to translate Don Fabio's new homily this week. Here below please find the homily for the second sunday of Easter last year (same Gospel). Normal service to resume next week!

Gospel:   John 20:19-31

On the evening of that first day of the week,

when the doors were locked, where the disciples were,

for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst

and said to them, “Peace be with you.”

When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.

The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.

Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you.

As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,

“Receive the Holy Spirit.

Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,

and whose sins you retain are retained.”

Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve,

was not with them when Jesus came.

So the other disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.”

But he said to them,

“Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands

and put my finger into the nailmarks

and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

Now a week later his disciples were again inside

and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.”

Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands,

and bring your hand and put it into my side,

and do not be unbelieving, but believe.”

Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

Jesus said to him, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples

that are not written in this book.

But these are written that you may come to believe

that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,

and that through this belief you may have life in his name.

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Like the Apostles, we are all locked in inner rooms behind barriers of fear. This fear is at the background of all our sinful activity. Our obsession with our own preservation drives us to engage in activity that is harmful to others and ultimately to ourselves. How do we escape from this closed room of sin and fear? We are not capable of escaping using our own methods. Self-analysis and psychological techniques can only take us so far. The forgiveness of sins is something that only the Lord can do. In the Gospel, Jesus appears in the closed room and says "Peace with you!" He shows them his wounds of love and commands them to bring his pardon to others. We too need to have Jesus in our midst. We must look to him, listen to his word, and welcome him wholeheartedly into our inner enclave of sin and fear. We must contemplate his wounds, as Thomas did, and believe in his forgiveness. The Lord will dissolve our sin and make us capable of carrying his pardon to others. Who is this Jesus who wishes to live in our midst? He is the God who has carved us on the palm of his hands – the hands that bore the nails of the cross out of love for us. When I contemplate the risen Jesus I must do so in the light of his passion and cross, which demonstrate graphically the extent of his love for me.

The story of doubting Thomas is perfectly in line with Divine Mercy Sunday

The great Pope John Paul  II will be canonized today and he dedicated the second Sunday of Easter to the Divine Mercy. At first glance, this dedication might seem incompatible with the traditional Gospel reading which recounts the story of doubting Thomas. But in fact the dedication is perfectly consistent with the Sunday readings - the forgiveness of sins is the central element in the apparitions of Jesus to the apostles. "Those whose sins you forgive shall be forgiven. Those whose sins you retain shall be retained". This command should not be interpreted as a form of dominion or arbitrary power given to the Church by Jesus. It would be very worrying if that were the case. The command rather, should be understood to mean that we should make every effort to carry the forgiveness of God to as many people as possible, because no-one else except us has been entrusted with this mission. In this sense, if we do not bring pardon to people then there is no one else who will do it. We must not forget that the forgiveness of sins is very much a divine capacity. In the Gospels, the Pharisees object when Jesus tells the paralytic that his sins have been forgiven. Sin is an issue that only God can resolve. Our various techniques for analysing human brokenness can achieve some things that are positive, but they cannot dissolve sin. We can analyse ourselves endlessly, but only a relationship with God - the only being who is greater than sin - has the power to create things anew and eliminate sin. 

The Resurrection is the first day of a new order in which God's forgiveness is transmitted to the world.

On this Divine Mercy Sunday, let us reflect on how this divine capacity for the forgiveness of sins is transmitted to human beings. The Gospel begins on the evening of the first day of the week. Which week is being referred to here? It is the week which begins immediately after the week of God's new act of creation. During this act of creation the new Adam is wounded in the side, out of which flows blood and water. The week ends on the Saturday, the Sabbath day (according to the order of the Old Testament) in which Jesus is placed in the tomb. The following day, the day of Resurrection, is the beginning of a new order in which God is doing something entirely new. The forgiveness of sins requires going beyond the categories of the old world. The forgiveness of sins is effectively life after death. After the death of sin, the dissolution of sin allows us to live a new life. We can begin again because Christ is risen.

Just like the disciples, we are locked in closed rooms behind barriers of fear. Our sinful activity is a response to deep-seated fears. Only Christ can overcome these barriers and dissolve our sinfulness.

It is interesting that Sunday, the day of resurrection, is described in the Gospel as the first day of the week. In our secular world, Sunday is considered part of the weekend. But Sunday is properly viewed as the first day of the week, the day from which the week takes its departure! It should not be thought of as the day we arrive at exhausted after our week's work, looking to be regenerated in whatever way takes our fancy. The celebration of the Eucharist adds a completely new dimension to our existence  and sends us out into the world to live the new week that has begun. The Gospel tells us that the disciples were locked in the upper room for fear of the Jews. The human being is not capable by himself of escaping from the closed room in which his fears entrap him. Fear is in the background of all sin, as the Letter to the Hebrews tells us. The fear of annihilation, the fear of death is the motor that is whirring away behind all sinful activity. The human being, in his fear of destruction and his disordered quest for life, engages in behaviour that is harmful to himself and others. This wall of fear that generates sin must be demolished, but we are not capable of doing it. The pardon that makes us overcome the fear that generates sin is the free gift of God, the eruption of Christ in person in the upper room in which we are enclosed. 

We cannot overcome sin unless we have Jesus standing in our midst

The Gospel tells us that Jesus comes and stands in the midst of the disciples. What a beautiful expression - to stand in their midst! Chapter 15 of the same Gospel says, "If you remain in me then my word will remain in you". Jesus is the one who wishes above all to remain in our midst. He departs from us only because he leads the way and we do not follow. The basic characteristic of the Christian community is to have Christ in their midst. How many people focus obsessively on their own errors and problems because they remain only with themselves. Do we really think that this organism of body and spirit that produces sin can, of itself, find a way of escaping from our situation? And so we continue going around in circles until the one who says "Peace be with you" comes in our midst. This Hebrew greeting is a greeting that initiates a relationship between two people. In this case it is heaven itself that salutes us, indicating that heaven is not distant from us. Even if we are in a state of sin, enclosed inside our barricades of fear, Jesus comes to us exactly where we are, demonstrating that he simply wishes to be with us. 

In the Old Testament, God tells us that he has carved us on the palm of his hands. The wounds of love on the risen Jesus are the way that the Lord has carved us on his hands. 

He salutes the disciples as a friend, and then shows them the scars in his hands and side. In other words he recalls the memory of the Cross. Jesus is not with them as he was before. He is with them after the event of the Cross. His wounds are a demonstration of what he has done for them. As the prophet Isaiah says, "A mother cannot forget her child, but even if a mother were to forget her child, I have carved you on the palm of my hands". Those hands are the hands of Christ who bear upon themselves the marks of suffering love. The disciples look on Jesus and rejoice. We too must look only for him and to him. In order for pardon to enter our lives, and in order for us to become instruments of pardon, we must take our point of departure from the Lord. At the heart of our misery, we must allow ourselves to be visited by Jesus, we must listen to his word and look upon him. We do not have the solution for sin within ourselves; we must look to him for the solution. When Thomas is finally present, he too must look at Jesus and contemplate his wounds. All of us need pardon for our sins in order to escape from the narrow room in which we are enclosed. To bring this about, we must look at Jesus and stop looking at ourselves.

April 20^th 2014. Easter Sunday.

Gospel: John 20:1-9

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

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A Happy and Blessed Easter to all our regular readers and to new ones as well!

GOSPEL                          John 20:1-9
It was very early on the first day of the week and still dark, when Mary of Magdala came to the tomb. She saw that the stone had been moved away from the tomb and came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved. 'They have taken the Lord out of the tomb' she said 'and we don't know where they have put him.'

So Peter set out with the other disciple to go to the tomb.

They ran together, but the other disciple, running faster than Peter, reached the tomb first; he bent down and saw the linen cloths lying on the ground, but did not go in.

Simon Peter who was following now came up, went right into the tomb, saw the linen cloths on the ground, and also the cloth that had been over his head; this was not with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself.

Then the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in; he saw and he believed. Till this moment they had failed to understand the teaching of scripture, that he must rise from the dead.

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . Don Fabio focuses on the empty tomb in his reflection. Do we think that the resurrection of Jesus is God’s way of opposing our sinfulness – the sinfulness that led to the death of Jesus? No! The resurrection should not be thought of as being in conflict with sin and death. There is perfect continuity between the crucifixion of Jesus and his resurrection. By our sins Jesus was crucified. He submitted himself to death out of unconditional love for us. His resurrection is the perfect continuation of this saving work. Out of love for us God raises Jesus to life – and all of us with him! Am I preoccupied by my sinfulness? Do I think that they put an obstacle between me and God? But look at how Jesus has loved me to the point of death! He has borne those very sins that preoccupy me! In his resurrection he has transformed those dark aspects of me into light! If I am inclined to think that sin and death have ultimate finality, then let me contemplate the empty tomb. The emptiness of this tomb shows that sin and death have disappeared. The love of God has the final say and it is an eternal one.

We go to Mass on Sunday to hear about the resurrection but instead we are told about an empty tomb!

What a gift to us is this liturgy of the feast of the Resurrection, the central feast of our faith! This is an incredibly joyful celebration and every word has an immense profundity that should find a reflection in our lives. The Gospel reading for Sunday morning, however, leaves us with our mouths open. People come to Mass to encounter the risen Lord but what they hear about is the empty tomb! Mary Magdalen finds the stone of the tomb rolled back. She tells Peter who comes with John to the tomb. They enter and believe. Why does the Church choose this reading for us on Easter Sunday?

The resurrection shouldn’t be thought of as something that conflicts with the condition of man. God is not opposed to us. He is not interested in victory over us, sinful though we may be. God accepts our sinfulness to the point of being crucified by it. His response is to raise Jesus – and all of us – to life.

In the first reading from the tenth chapter of Acts, Peter announces the faith to the household of Cornelius. “You have heard of Jesus of Nazareth, how he went about doing good and healing the sick. We can witness to the things he did, and to the fact that they killed him by hanging him on a tree. Yet three days afterwards God raised him to life.” The word “yet” appears in the translation, but in the original text it is not present. A better translation would say: “ . . . they killed him by hanging him on a tree. The same Jesus was raised to life by God three days later.” This seems like a small point, but it is very important! If we say “Jesus was killed by us, yet God raised him to life,” it makes it sound as if God’s action is opposed to our action. But that is not exactly the sentiment contained in Peter’s words if we read the original text carefully. Similarly in St Mark’s Gospel, when Jesus makes the third prophesy of his passion and resurrection, he says “the Son of Man will be scourged, spat upon and killed, and he will rise three days later.” Jesus doesn’t say “ . .but he will rise three days later.” It is important to recognize that the salvation wrought by God is not something that is opposed to humanity, or that involves vanquishing humanity. There is not simply an opposition between the evil of humanity and the salvific action of God. Instead God takes the evil of humanity and draws salvation from it. God is not opposed to us! The resurrection does not stand in opposition to the condition of man; in fact it is the last chapter in the process by which God comes closer to us, by which God loves us.

The resurrection is the ultimate statement of God’s love for us. As such, it stands in perfect continuity with the crucifixion.

This is one of the reasons why the Church this Sunday underlines the emptiness of the tomb. We are presented with a surprise, an empty tomb. Death has not had the final word! The story continues! Death seemed once a full-stop but now has been reduced by Jesus to a comma. Life from this point forward will never again be brought to an end by death. Life will never again be brought to a definitive conclusion by evil. God has the last word, and the last word is an eternal one. The love of God is stronger than the sinfulness of man.

Are we preoccupied by our sinfulness? It is that sinfulness which has crucified Jesus. But we need not be preoccupied by it. Jesus allowed himself to be crucified by us because he loved us. And his response to our sin is the resurrection, the ultimate statement of love for us. We killed him by our sin – his response is to raise us to life!

The empty tomb confronting Mary, Peter and John is a sign that they must continue to contemplate how God has responded to sin. Sin is not an ultimate thing, something that stands in opposition to the action of God. From the perspective of the resurrection, sin is no longer the primary thing in the condition of man. The emphasis now shifts to the way that God has responded to sin. That is why the point made at the beginning of this reflection was not a pedantic one. Instead of saying: “We sinned but Jesus loved us,” it is better to say: “We sinned and Jesus loved us.” This Sunday we can say confidently that for everything anguished and negative we have done, there is a word from God that is more powerful still. The love of God for us transforms all these things into light. This is what allows him to be crucified by us and risen for us. He assumes onto himself our human nature and transforms it so that we can become children of God.

APRIL 13^th 2014. PALM SUNDAY

Gospel: Matthew 21:1-11

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading ...

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PROCESSIONAL GOSPEL Matthew 21:1-11

When they were near Jerusalem and had come in sight of Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, 'Go to the village facing you, and you will immediately find a tethered donkey and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you are to say, "The Master needs them and will send them back directly".' This took place to fulfil the prophecy:

Say to the daughter of Zion: 
Look, your king comes to you; 
he is humble, he rides on a donkey 
and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.

So the disciples went out and did as Jesus had told them. They brought the donkey and the colt, then they laid their cloaks on their backs and he sat on them. Great crowds of people spread their cloaks on the road, while others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them in his path. The crowds who went in front of him and those who followed were all shouting:

 'Hosanna to the Son of David! 
Blessings on him who comes in the name of the Lord! 
Hosanna in the highest heavens!'

 And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil. 'Who is this?' people asked, and the crowds answered, 'This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee'.

 The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . Don Fabio encourages us to have a short homily on Palm Sunday because the narrative of the Passion in itself gives us so much to reflect on. The processional Gospel tells of Jesus entering Jerusalem on a humble beast of burden. Jesus deliberately chose this means to enter the city and receive the glory of Jerusalem. By doing so he shows us that human glory is an empty and meaningless thing, something that is based on trivial, external trappings, such as the animal chosen to bear the king. The glory of this world is inflated, full of itself. We all yearn for glory based on our own ego, our own achievements. How different is the glory of Jesus! He renounces his ego and does not come in his own name, but in the name of his heavenly Father. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! This is the glory that all of us are destined for. When Jesus frees us from the dictates of our own ego, only then have we the freedom to love unselfishly, to serve others and do good. For as long as I pursue my own glory, I will lack the freedom that leads to true glory. Jesus does not impose himself on us. He respects our freedom and wants us to respond to him in freedom. He comes to us respectfully, showing the marks of the passion which bear witness to his love for us. See his dignity! See his interior glory!

Let us join the procession on Palm Sunday! Faith is not a private thing but something to be celebrated publicly!
For Palm Sunday a short homily on the processional Gospel is perhaps the best way to go. The long reading of the Passion requires no commentary at all. How could we even begin to comment on the beautiful and extraordinary events of the Passion? The processional Gospel precedes a procession, and hopefully the procession in your parish will be a joyful and colourful event! Christianity is a public thing. There is a tendency nowadays to think that religious practice should be something private; something to be confined within the walls of the church. But a more correct view maintains that our profession of the faith must be public; it must have consequences for real life. If it does not have consequences for real life then we - the so-called children of God - are behaving like children of this world, and that makes no sense whatsoever! If our faith does not inform everything we do, then it is something superficial that does not authentically form our identity.

Jesus chooses the most humble way to enter the city and receive the honour of the people. In doing this he is teaching us about the emptiness of human glory and the depth of God’s glory.
Jesus permitted this procession to happen and he ordered his disciples to prepare it for him. Therefore we should reflect deeply on what it all means. The disciples are instructed to procure the donkey and the colt for him. These beasts of burden will bear the weight of Jesus in the procession. This whole narrative recalls the biblical notion of kingship. The king in Israel was a figure of humility, someone who owed his position entirely to God and not to his own power. There is something very bitter-sweet about the procession as people lay their cloaks and palm branches in front of the donkey. Jesus is being honoured all right, but has chosen this humble means to enter the city. Imagine a great world leader comes to visit our town and we are lined on the side of the streets waiting for him to come. The roads are flanked by police. A great cheer goes up and the world leader comes driving along in an old Volkswagen Beatle! We would be surprised to say the least. But with Jesus, where there is glory there is great humility. And this text challenges us to recognize that our human glory consists in trivial things that have no lasting meaning. The glory of this world is something that is inflated, full of itself.

We yearn for a glory that is based on our own ego. The glory of Jesus is based on the fact that he renounces his own ego and comes in the name of someone else.
The Old Testament scriptures recognize that the ancient King of Israel was an unworthy figure. Any glory associated with him came from heaven. In fact the people cry out to Jesus, “Hosanna in the highest heavens”. The glory that belongs to Jesus is something that comes from the highest part of heaven. Jesus is the son who comes in the name of the Lord. This is the true glory of Christ, one that comes in someone else’s name, one that comes on a beast of burden. This is the same kind of glory that all of us are destined for. But we in our stupidity strive constantly for a glory that is born in us, that derives from our ego. Love for ourselves blinds us to the nature of true glory. Real glory is in the name of the Lord, not in my own name. We acknowledge this every time we pray the Our Father and say “hallowed by Thy name.” There are many freedoms we can have, but the greatest is freedom from the dictates of my own ego! This is the freedom that allows us to love, to serve and to do good.

Jesus is humiliated externally, but this humiliation only serves to highlight even more his interior dignity and glory
The procession on Palm Sunday is the procession of the poor, the humble, the small people, the people who acclaim another. We, however, want to be acclaimed by others. We wish to be loved, adored, glorified. This is not the Christian way of acclaim! The procession we must participate in is one that acclaims another, acclaims the one who loves us, acclaims the humiliated Christ. When the Lord Jesus comes in glory, he will appear with the signs of his passion. He will appear humbly, respectfully, not forcing himself upon humanity, not seeking anything from humanity. Instead all he does is give, and what he gives us is freedom. Through this Gospel passage we see the glory that is proclaimed in the Passion. The man who is crucified is full of dignity. The external humiliation of Christ is in contrast to his interior glory. The union between man and God is the union of humility and glory.

April 6^th 2014. FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT

Gospel: John 11:1-45

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading ...

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GOSPEL John 11:1-45

There was a man named Lazarus who lived in the village of Bethany with the two sisters, Mary and Martha, and he was ill. It was the same Mary, the sister of the sick man Lazarus, who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair. The sisters sent this message to Jesus, 'Lord, the man you love is ill'. On receiving the message, Jesus said, 'This sickness will end not in death but in God's glory, and through it the Son of God will be glorified'.

Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, yet when he heard that Lazarus was ill he stayed where he was for two more days before saying to the disciples, 'Let us go to Judaea'. The disciples said, 'Rabbi, it is not long since the Jews wanted to stone you; are you going back again?' Jesus replied:

‘Are there not twelve hours in the day?
A man can walk in the daytime without stumbling
because he has the light of this world to see by;
but if he walks at night he stumbles,
because there is no light to guide him.'

He said that and then added, 'Our friend Lazarus is resting, I am going to wake him'. The disciples said to him, 'Lord, if he is able to rest he is sure to get better'. The phrase Jesus used referred to the death of Lazarus, but they thought that by 'rest' he meant 'sleep', so Jesus put it plainly, 'Lazarus is dead; and for your sake I am glad I was not there because now you will believe. But let us go to him.' Then Thomas - known as the Twin - said to the other disciples, 'Let us go too, and die with him'.

On arriving, Jesus found that Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days already. Bethany is only about two miles from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to sympathise with them over their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus had come she went to meet him. Mary remained sitting in the house. Martha said to Jesus, 'If you had been here, my brother would not have died, but I know that, even now, whatever you ask of God, he will grant you'. 'Your brother' said Jesus to her 'will rise again.' Martha said, '1 know he will rise again at the resurrection on the last day'. Jesus said:

'I am the resurrection.
If anyone believes in me, even though he dies he will live,
and whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.
Do you believe this?'

'Yes, Lord,' she said 'I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who was to come into this world.' When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in a low voice, 'The Master is here and wants to see you'. Hearing this, Mary got up quickly and went to him. Jesus had not yet come into the village; he was still at the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who were in the house sympathising with Mary saw her get up so quickly and go out, they followed her, thinking that she was going to the tomb to weep there.

Mary went to Jesus, and as soon as she saw him she threw herself at his feet, saying, 'Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died'. At the sight of her tears, and those of the Jews who followed her, Jesus said in great distress, with a sigh that came straight from the heart, 'Where have you put him?' They said, 'Lord, come and see'. Jesus wept; and the Jews said, 'See how much he loved him!' But there were some who remarked, 'He opened the eyes of the blind man, could he not have prevented this man's death?' Still sighing, Jesus reached the tomb: it was a cave with a stone to close the opening. Jesus said, 'Take the stone away'. Martha said to him, 'Lord, by now he will smell; this is the fourth day'. Jesus replied, 'Have I not told you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?' So they took away the stone. Then Jesus lifted up his eyes and said:

'Father, I thank you for hearing my prayer.
I knew indeed that you always hear me,
but I speak for the sake of all these who stand round me,
so that they may believe it was you who sent me.'

When he had said this, he cried in a loud voice, 'Lazarus, here! Come out!' The dead man came out, his feet and hands bound with bands of stuff and a cloth round his face. Jesus said to them, 'Unbind him, let him go free'.

Many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary and had seen what he did believed in him.

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . Jesus waits until Lazarus is in a state of decomposition before he goes to him. Everyone in the Gospel passage complains about the slowness of Jesus in coming to Lazarus’ aid. Why did Jesus delay so long? He tells us himself in the passage. The glory of God is fully revealed when the dead are raised to life. We often think that we can solve our own problems by applying our talents diligently enough. But when it comes to death we have no doubt how helpless we really are! Jesus shows us in this passage that he is ready and willing to enter into the decayed and dead areas of our existence in order to bring us back to life. Jesus is the only one who loves us right to the end, no matter how distorted or unpleasant we are. There is much in all of our lives that is decaying and gives off the scent of death. And what do we do? We put on a mask and show a presentable face to God and the world. We think that God will only accept us if we prove ourselves to be “worthy”. What we really need to do is acknowledge our unworthiness and allow Jesus to enter into the most sinful areas of our lives to bring them back to life. Until we allow Jesus to enter into the tombs of our lives, we cannot be transformed by his grace. The slab that covered the tomb of Lazarus is like the mask that covers my state of internal decay. Do I really think that I can tackle this decay on my own? This Lent, as we prepare for Easter, let us listen to the words of Jesus who said to Lazarus “Come out!” Let us allow him to call us back to life.

The greatest manifestation of the power of God is in the opening of tombs
The first reading tells us that the power of God will become manifest when the Lord opens the graves of his people and raises them up. Opening a tomb, however, is not usually considered a pleasant experience. In the passage from John’s Gospel, in fact, Martha reacts to the notion of Jesus opening her brother’s tomb. Lazarus has been dead for four days and Jesus’ behaviour since he heard of Lazarus’ illness has been a little strange. He knew of the illness but didn’t decide to come until he received news of the death. As a result Jesus is reprimanded for his delay a number of times, above all by each of the sisters. “If you had been here, my brother would not have died.” The Jews, too, grumble about Jesus. “He opened the eyes of a blind man. Could he not have prevented this man’s death?”

We sometimes think that we can solve our own problems. But we know that only the power of the Lord can transform death to life
Why did Jesus decide to stay away until after Lazarus’ death? The first reading from Ezekiel tells us that the power of the Lord is revealed when God acts at this impossible level – the level of bringing life from death. Where do we recognize more clearly the power of God? In silly things or in great things? Do we see the hand of God in things that are difficult or in things that we could have resolved by ourselves without his help? Jesus waited until the situation reached a point of such crisis that its resolution could only be achieved by the power of God, thus manifesting his glory.

God loves us not because of our wonderful qualities. He wishes to be with us even when we are repulsive and have the scent of decay
Jesus arrives at Lazarus’ house amid grumbling and complaints. “Why couldn’t he have come sooner,” everyone wants to know. When Jesus begins to weep, there is a feeling that these are just crocodile tears. If he really cared, surely he would have done something before now? Then Jesus asks to open the tomb. This is a difficult request to grant because Lazarus should already be in a state of decomposition. Even Mary comments that her brother will now smell. But this is exactly the point that Jesus wants to arrive at. In response to Mary’s comment about her brother’s state of decomposition, Jesus addresses a blessing to his heavenly father. Jesus has waited to raise Lazarus up at this late stage because he wants to show us that his salvific actions are not reserved for those who are worthy or pleasant-smelling. God comes to us when we give off the scent of death, the scent of mortality, the scent of our own limitations.

We seek to cultivate our own worthiness in the sight of the Lord, but what we really need to do is acknowledge our unworthiness and allow the Lord to enter into the decaying and unacceptable areas of our lives
In each one of us there is much that is decaying and unresolved. But we persist in thinking that we can only approach God when we have something to offer, when we are presentable. We strive to be worthy of God’s love, but none of us can merit the favour of God! The only sort of relationship with God that can save us fully is to allow ourselves to be washed and touched by the Lord when we are undeserving and unclean. God loves us most of all when he opens our tombs and touches the parts of us that are dead and decaying. The human being has areas within that are distorted, unpleasant, sick and ugly. When Jesus loves us in these area, our lives are transformed. We no longer seek to live life on the basis of our own dubious capacities but on the power of God. How few Christians allow themselves to be truly loved by God! How many people continue to cultivate their own worthiness, as if God did now know what we are really like! How often we are fixated with trying to make a good impression in the eyes of others. Instead we are a church that owes its existence to mercy. We are a people whose scent of decomposition has not dissuaded the Lord from approaching us. Our state of decay has not deterred Jesus by one jot from loving us.

We will not be transformed by the grace of God until we allow him to love us in the most undeserving and pitiful areas of our lives

Jesus cries out to Lazarus to come out. How many of us lie buried in our bunkers! We create systems of security around us that become prisons. The rock that enclosed Lazarus is like the masks that we put on to hide the ugliness and decay that is underneath. Jesus is the only one who loves us to the end, who loves us right into the tomb. Until we allow Jesus to love us in the most miserable areas of ourselves, we cannot be transformed by his grace. If we continue to think that, by our own efforts, we can raise ourselves from this misery and be worthy of his grace, we are greatly mistaken. The grace of God is free gift, pure and entire. This Sunday let us prepare for the celebration of Easter in humility and openness, accepting that the Lord must love us in those areas that are dead and decaying. It is here that the glory of God is revealed, in loving us in a way that is scandalously unconditional.