Fifth Sunday of Lent (A)

Fr. Johannes VILAR(Köln, Germany)

Today, the Church presents us with a great miracle: Jesus raises a deceased man, who had been dead for several days.

The resurrection of Lazarus is similar to that of Christ, which we will commemorate soon. Jesus tells Martha that He is the resurrection and the life (cf. Jn 11:25). He asks all of us: “Do you believe this?” (Jn 11:26). Do we believe that in baptism God has given us a new life? Saint Paul says that we are a new creation (cf. 2 Cor 5:17). This resurrection is the foundation of our hope, which is based not on a future, uncertain, and false utopia, but on a fact: “The Lord has truly been raised” (Lk 24:34).

Jesus commands, “Untie him and let him go” (Jn 11:44). Redemption has freed us from the chains of sin, which we all suffered from. Pope Leo the Great said: “Errors were overcome, powers subdued, and the world gained a new beginning. For if we suffer with Him, we will also glorified with Him (cf. Rom 8:17). This gain is not only prepared for those who, in the name of the Lord, are crushed by the godless. For all those who serve God and live in Him are crucified in Christ, and in Christ they will win the crown.”

As Christians, we are called, even on this earth, to live this new supernatural life that makes us capable of bearing witness to our fate: always ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks us for a reason for our hope! (cf. 1 Pet 3:15). It is logical that in these days we try to follow Jesus the Teacher closely. Traditions such as the Way of the Cross, the meditation on the Mysteries of the Rosary, the texts of the Gospels… everything can and should be a help to us.

Our hope is also placed in Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ and our Mother, who is also an icon of hope: at the foot of the Cross, she waited against all hope and was associated with the work of her Son.

Thoughts on Today’s Gospel

• “But the confession you make is effected by God, when He cries with a loud voice, or in other words, calls you in abounding grace. Accordingly, when the dead man had come forth, still bound; confessing, yet guilty still; that his sins also might be taken away, the Lord said to His servants: ‘Loose him, and let him go’. What does He mean by such words? What soever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Saint Augustine)
• “Christ is not resigned to the tombs that we have built for ourselves with our choice for evil and death, with our errors, with out sins. He invites us to come out of the tomb: ‘Come out!’, he says to us. It is an invitation to true freedom.” (Francis)
• “The words bind and loose mean: whomever you exclude from your communion, will be excluded from communion with God; whomever you receive anew into your communion, God will welcome back into his. Reconciliation with the Church is inseparable from reconciliation with God.” (Catechism Of The Catholic Church, Nº 1445)