“I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live”
Jn 11, 1-45
Rev. Alexander Diaz
Today the word brings us to see Jesus, human and divine. We don’t see only a Jesus who heals and resurrects at the same time, we see a Jesus who cries, who is perturbed by His friend’s death, a Jesus who has friends, a Jesus close to his people. He was perturbed and wept over the loss of His friend.
This shows us the quality of human being that He was, His words become alive among us. There are many people who, when the subject of death is approached, get shocked, they get depressed or they simply are afraid to touch the subject. This will destroy them and submerge them in sadness.
They try to prevent talking about death as much as possible. Jesus gets close to us and gives us an answer, when we are confronted with the sad reality of death. It is normal to falter when we lose a love one, to miss him.
It hurts us to see him return to the Father’s house, it is normal to experiment all these feelings, we are not saying it is wrong to feel that way, even Jesus in today’s Gospel felt and do the same, what is not normal is not to accept this moment, which we all will go thru and face sooner or later.
But that will only be a bridge that will mark the beginning of a new life. So when we die, we will still live, spiritually speaking. This Sunday’s Gospel makes us reflect in a profound manner about the subject of not only our corporal and biological death, but also the spiritual death that so many of us are submerged in our society.
Jesus goes to Lazarus tomb and tells them to “Take away the stone”. Martha, sister of the deceased , answers: “Lord, by now there will be a stench, he has been dead for four days” Jn11,39). The teacher is not worried about the stench, His only interest is to bring him out of the bad smelling and no sense tomb.
The dead ones who need to come out of the tomb are those people who stop growing and have lost all hope. Are the ones who live full of fears, when the Gospel tells us time and time again: “Do not be afraid”. Those are the people who have very easily thrown down the towel, when Jesus invites us to fight.
To be dead in and buried in, is to be unhappy, is to allow love to die, to allow loneliness to win the fight, to be a coward, to be indifferent, the boredom of our routine, the absurdity of our past, the stubbornness of our pessimism and the in-satisfaction.
I do not get tired of saying, that many in this society do not live life to the fullest, they just survive and agonize. There are many reasons that will make people lose their willingness to live.
There are many people who, instead of facing their serious problems would rather let themselves die. I have always told myself, that to confront the difficulties and problems od this life, what I need to do is fight to overcome them. It is sad and disheartening to see people be seized by loneliness, discouraged and disheartened; see how they suffer day by day.
They get stock, they will not move neither interior or exteriorly, they constantly complain because they are unhappy but they are not willing to step out and go further than their boredom. We have to read this Gospel remembering the prodical son (Lc ll) since the younger son “was dead and came back to life”.
He came back to life because he was able to liven up, turn back his footsteps and move forward. It does not pay to stand still and do nothing but complaint all day long. You have to struggle, fight for what you want, you have to sacrifice to obtain what you desire.
The suffering of many people could be avoided and diminished if they had the capacity to change, get up and go back to the Father’s house. But no, they constantly complaint about their past, their present and their future.
To die, is to allow the different ways of dying (sins) present in the world, to win our earthly interior. To resurrect is to “stand up” and go back to the Father’s house.
The words of Jesus impact me, when with authority, He calls out, from the tomb’s door. The Gospel tells us that Jesus cried out in a loud voice: “Lazarus, come out” (Jn. 11.43). Jesus’ phrase is a spiritual order for us to come out of our inferiority complexes that do not allow us to love and be loved, to come out of our depressions, to come out of our exhausting and dying past, to come out of the frightening tomb to be a better person, to overcome our complexes and exceed ourselves, to live.
To come out of that toxic environment that is killing us, an environment created by your own friends, coworkers, even your own family. “GET UP”, Come out, breath the fresh air of the resurrection, of peace, of joy, of the goodness and the kindness you are losing. Come out of the tomb, Jesus is telling you every day thru the people who love you.
Lazarus obeys and comes out, with difficulty, the Gospel tells us that “the dead came out, tied hands and foot with burial bands, and his face wrapped in a cloth” So Jesus said to them: “Untie him and let him go”. (Jn. 11,44). Those words have a very deep meaning in this actual and modern world, because the modern world is full of people who are dedicated to suffocate, stifle others, they are the burial bands and cloth that will not allow Lazarus to freely come out.
People who live their lives spreading the culture of death on them and others. They are supporters, advocates of a world of death, they are the ones that normally and without regrets support the mother who is willing to abort, (kill) the child she carries in her womb. They will advise a couple to get divorced, instead of fighting and struggling to save their marriage, they promote and encourage the idea of the terminally ill and the old be exterminated.
These are people that in their project of life, if something does not come the way they planned, they will promote, as a quick way out, the auto elimination, suicide, as an expression of liberty.
I will never support the culture of death, I will never agree with the ones who make death, breaching, breaking, dividing the solutions to their problems. Do not become an accomplice to the well known “culture of death”. The culture that Jesus brings us is, the culture of life, physical and eternal life.
The resurrection that Jesus proposes to us, is of our hearts. The person who is united to Christ will support and collaborate with Him so the interior of many human beings will be transformed and be, at the same time, able to transform others. You and I were born to live, we were not born to die. Remember and be aware of Jesus’ words: “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?”. Live in Christ.
Amen!!
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