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OMELIE / Omelie EN

29 mar 2020
29/03/2020 - 5th Sunday of Lent - Year A 

29/03/2020 - 5th Sunday of Lent - Year A 

Reading 1 EZ 37,12-14 * Psalm 129 * Reading 2 ROM 8,8-11 * Gospel JN 11,1-45

 

Today the responsorial psalm among the readings summarises the deep hope the believer has in God even when he falls in the experience of the sin. Instead of letting himself being struck by sadness, the Christian can see God’s goodness, and he is turning to Him to obtain His mercy. In this way we answer the prophet Ezechiel's announcement, who is foretelling the resurrection from the dead.

We are dead when we fall in sin , separating ourselves from the God of life. We are dead when we are not able to keep up our hopes because faith has become hazy, we are dead  when in us Jesus' life leaves space  for material worries and superficial or unessential occupations.

The apostle is also talking about death in the brief text of the letter to the Romans. Death can own our body, that death that has entered the world because of the sin, because of the pride and the following disobedience of Adam. This is why we are trying not to live anymore “in the flesh”, that is to say influenced by our selfishness and our passionate feelings, but we try instead to follow God’s Spirit's inspiration, the Spirit we know because of and we receive from Jesus Christ, risen from the dead. When we let ourselves being guided by His Spirit the possibility of death is not scary anymore, it does not rule us anymore. God’s Spirit is life for us. Who lives in communion with Jesus lives the novelty and peace of eternal life, he knows that his life is not closed anymore inside this world, and even if he does not « feel » anything special, lives in the serenity and trust to be appreciated by God, the God of love.

Jesus wants us to be 100% sure of Him, sent to be our life after the death come from sin. Today’s gospel tells us about a very particular event. Lazarus' death is not frightening Jesus, on the contrary, it looks like He wants to wait for it and let it following its course. In fact, He waits a few days before getting closer to Bethany, Lazarus' village. Instead of going to his sisters' house in order to console them, He goes straight to the tomb, where his body has been laid four days before. After waiting for both the sisters to arrive, He makes Himself known to them, not only as the friend, but as the one sent by God, who is and brings with Him “the resurrection and the life” for those who believe in Him. When at least the sisters show their true and deep faith, He is moved and sheds some tears. Are these tears of solidarity with those of the men crying for death that is ruining their relationships? Or are these instead tears of joy thinking of what is going to happen? Or maybe tears of relief thanks to the certainty to be heard by the Father?

With tears in His eyes Jesus cries out towards the dead and wrapped man. That man hears Jesus' voice! How is this possible? Lazarus hears and obeys: he leaves the tomb, the place of death. We find difficult to understand and accept the miracle. But at least we accept the fact that Lazarus is an image for all those men and women who, gagged by the death and the darkness due to sin, let themselves to be reached by Jesus' voice, by the sound of his words, by the heartfelt cry which he wants to save them with.

What a marvelous thing is to see people wanting love, who live like they are dead, without the joy of being loved by the Father and without the ability to love, answering Jesus' voice! They have still need to be helped, because many bounds and conditionings are hindering them, like Lazarus who needed to be freed from the bindings, but the fact that they answer Jesus makes them able to stand, lightens their face up, while they leave behind the darkness of the tomb, the gloominess and the fear of death.

Lazarus is a marvelous image of my life, of yours. When they answer Jesus' voice, a new, divine, strength enters me, which bears every fear of the past and the future. When I answer Jesus I find brethren who untie me and free me from everything that was keeping me in darkness and inanity, slave to weird situations. Jesus is the saviour, Jesus is the true friend who uncovers the lies of any other friendship, Jesus is life, Jesus is the news which frees me from this heavy world and introduces me in a world of light! Thank you, Lord Jesus!