YES LORD I BELIEVE
1. I Am the Resurrection and the Life
2. Come Out of Your Graves
Introduction
1. I Am the Resurrection and the Life
How can some Christians answer in surveys that they don’t believe in the resurrection? The resurrection is central for a believer. Today’s liturgy is a strong statement of our faith in the resurrection, not only of that of Jesus but also our own. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead; Jesus himself rose from death to life. Our own risen life began at baptism, and this eternal life has to grow and keep rising until after we have died. God raises us up. Jesus asks us today: Do you believe this? And we answer: Yes, Lord, I do. Let the Eucharist be the food of that risen life in you.
- Come Out of Your Graves
Is it not true that at times we do not live a full life because we are afraid and selfish, we dare not to commit ourselves to one another, and we do not live according to the Gospel? If so, are we not more dead than alive? The Gospel calls us today to come out of the tombs of our hardness of heart, out of the graves of our fears and selfishness, of everything that keeps us imprisoned. Let us heed the Lord’s call to life, to rise with him to joy and love and freedom. Let us eat with the Lord his bread of life.
First Reading: God is the Life of His People
To his disheartened people in exile in a foreign land, God tells through the prophet: I want you to live. I will bring you back to the land of the promise and give you my spirit of life and strength.
1 Reading: Ezekiel 37:12-14
Thus says the Lord GOD: O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them, and bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and have you rise from them, O my people! I will put my spirit in you that you may live, and I will settle you upon your land; thus you shall know that I am the LORD. I have promised, and I will do it, says the LORD.
Responsorial Psalm PS 130:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8
R. (7) With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.
Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD;
LORD, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to my voice in supplication. R.
If you, O LORD, mark iniquities,
LORD, who can stand?
But with you is forgiveness,
that you may be revered. R.
I trust in the LORD;
my soul trusts in his word.
More than sentinels wait for the dawn,
let Israel wait for the LORD. R.
For with the LORD is kindness
and with him is plenteous redemption;
And he will redeem Israel
from all their iniquities. R.
Second Reading: The Holy Spirit Gives Us God’s Life
Christians do not escape from the reality of their human nature, from evil and suffering. Yet they may not capitulate to the death of sin. Through the Holy Spirit living in them, they are called to share in God’s unending life.
2 Reading: Romans 8:8-11
Brothers and sisters: Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
But you are not in the flesh; on the contrary, you are in the spirit, if only the Spirit of God dwells in you. Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is alive because of righteousness. If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit dwelling in you.
Acclamation: John 11:25A, 26
I am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord;
whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will never die.
Gospel: Lazarus, Come Out!
Jesus is the resurrection and the life. As he raised Lazarus from the dead, so he gives us a share in his risen life now and will raise us up on the day of judgment. It is our task too, to bring people to the fullness of life.
Gospel: John 11:1-45
Now a man was ill, Lazarus from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who had anointed the Lord with perfumed oil and dried his feet with her hair; it was her brother Lazarus who was ill. So the sisters sent word to him 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.” The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you, and you want to go back there?” Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in a day? If one walks during the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if one walks at night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” He said this, and then told them, “Our friend Lazarus is asleep, but I am going to awaken him.” So the disciples said to him, “Master, if he is asleep, he will be saved.” But Jesus was talking about his death, while they thought that he meant ordinary sleep. So then Jesus said to them clearly, “Lazarus has died. And I am glad for you that I was not there, that you may believe. Let us go to him.” 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. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, only about two miles away. And many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother. 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 to him, “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.” When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary secretly, saying, “The teacher is here and is asking for you.” As soon as she heard this, she rose quickly and went to him. For Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still where Martha had met him. So when the Jews who were with her in the house comforting her saw Mary get up quickly and go out, they followed her, presuming that she was going to the tomb to weep there. When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping, 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.
Commentary
Jesus raises Lazarus. This chapter constitutes a whole episode. Its content is the resurrection and life made possible by Jesus. Within the narrative structure of the gospel, it acquires a vital importance, because it will become the event that triggers the death of Jesus. It also has a very suspenseful nature, due to the theological work of John. It is the seventh and last sign of Jesus. That is why he had endowed it with a special beauty and attractiveness. The gospel writer did not just want to tell a miracle, but also to confirm the revealing word of Jesus: “I am the resurrection and the life.”
In the intention of the evangelist, the resurrection of Lazarus is directly related to Jesus Christ, the giver of life. The gift of life is presented here as victory over death. Jesus conquered death by dying. This is the meaning of the dialogue between the Master and his disciples (7-16).
Upon arriving in Bethany, Jesus finds Lazarus already dead for and buried for four days in the tomb (17). That is, he was publicly and totally dead.
The gospel writer reflects the deep humanity of Jesus in his weeping for Lazarus (35); his tears express pain in the face of the death of a friend; they are the tears of God before the death that separates people who love each other.
Jesus goes to the sepulcher to face death and to conquer it. The miracle is briefly narrated (43-44). The cry of Jesus that rises from the thanksgiving to the Father is none other than an advance of the cry by which he calls all those who believe in him. “I tell you solemnly that the hour is near, indeed is already here in which the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live” (5:25). The bodily life that Jesus gives to Lazarus is a sign of the true life that he grants all those who believe in him.
There is a double reaction to the prodigy: faith and incredulity. Faith opens the doors to life while incredulity closes them.
The religious authorities then decide to take action: they are afraid that the activity of Jesus, his prodigious signs, might foster a mass movement of a messianic nature that would jeopardize the established order (47-48). They fear the retaliation of the Romans. For the high priests and Pharisees Jesus was a dangerous man.
With his suggestive idea Caiaphas (49-50) is just an instrument in God’s hands to solemnly proclaim that Jesus is dying for the people, in order to gather the scattered children of God (52). The tribes are no longer the ones convening (Ezek 37:21-26), but all the “children of God”, that is, all those who believe in Jesus.
Blessing
Bow your heads and pray for God’s blessing:
God our Father wants us to live.
May we gratefully accept life from him
as a gift and an assignment. R/ Amen.
Our Lord Jesus Christ died for us
that we might live.
May we live with him a life
worthy of the sons and daughters of God. R/ Amen.
The life-giving Spirit inspires us
to follow the way of Christ as people living for others.
May he make us always available and open
to anyone in need. R/ Amen.
And may the God of life,
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
bless you and keep you in his love. R/ Amen.
Let us go in the peace of Christ. R/ Thanks be to God.