Baptism to Resurrection; Raising Lazarus to Life with Christ!

Baptism to Resurrection; Raising of Lazarus to Life with Christ!

5th Sunday of Lent

“Where have you laid him?”  A question that appears as an assurance that he is here.  “Come and see.”   As we come to say goodbye to our loved one, the open grave waiting to receive the coffin of our beloved says much more than a simple ceremony.  This has become the final effort of this once vibrant and warm person who leads each of us into eternity.  (Jn 11: 34). 

What is truth can be a heartbreaking moment as we watch the person we loved become an empty vessel that no longer breathes and speaks to us.  Deep down the dialogue of Martha and Jesus changes the cold and chilling episode that otherwise promises nothing.  “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”  Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise.”    (The preceding from Jn 11:  21 - 26)

Mary says, “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?”  (Jn 11: 25 26).

As we prepare for baptism and a new life in the Catholic Church, believe that this is the truth that awaits us, even if we die!

This narrative becomes the most impressive faction in Sacred Scripture.  It is a video in action as Jesus raises Lazarus from sleeping to revived life and becomes the very manner that our resurrected bodies will also appear as we are raptured to the Lord.  This is what our time in Lent, especially this year, will ask of us;  “Do you believe this?”  

Following Jesus through the Scriptures, attending Holy Mass and partaking of the Sacraments prepares our understanding of what Christ has left us with.  However, without truly believing what we just read or heard regarding Lazarus as a prelude to Resurrection, the rest leaves us with an empty understanding of his words, “I am the Resurrection and the life.”

Through the three days of The Triduum  lies every point of the Truth and if this becomes your only connection to your faith, you have found what will save your soul.  

In Brief:  The whole of Christ’s life was a continual teaching: his silences, his miracles, his gestures, his prayer, his love for people, his special affection for the little and the poor, his acceptance of the total sacrifice on the Cross for the redemption of the world, and his Resurrection are the actualization of his word and the fulfillment of Revelation.  (CCC 561)  (John Pau II).

Ralph B. Hathaway