OMELIE / Omelie EN

22 mar 2026

22/04/2026 - 5th SUNDAY OF LENT - Year A

22/04/2026 - 5th SUNDAY OF LENT - Year A

1st reading Ez 37:12-14 from Psalm 129 2nd reading Rom 8:8-11 Gospel Jn 11:1-45

Over the last two Sundays, we have questioned ourselves about man's thirst and the darkness of his eyes. We have had the answer: the source of true and everlasting water is Jesus, and Jesus is also the light and the source of light. Today, we delve even deeper into the thirst for life that keeps men in tears because of the suffering that death makes us experience and fear.

The prophet Ezekiel speaks of tombs and graves: he alludes to the situation in which the people find themselves, deported among the pagans. From that situation, he will raise them up, that is, “I will bring you back to the land of Israel”. With the same word “graves”, we allude to the fearful situations in which people live who do not know that they can count on a God who loves them. These are the same tombs and graves into which even the man who has known God falls because of his sins. But the prophet reminds us that the God of Abraham is a God to whom we can say, “With you is forgiveness” and “With the Lord is mercy”, as the psalm invites us to pray today. There is therefore hope, that is, the certainty that redemption will come, and that the tombs will open to restore us to life. In fact, not only will the tombs open, but “I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live”. The Spirit of God, who will enter into us, will be a life even more true and secure than the one that sin has caused to die.

St Paul takes up the same truths prophesied and presents them to us as fulfilled by the work of Jesus, by his death, which did not keep him in the darkness of the tomb. What happened to Jesus, that is, his resurrection from the dead, will also be a reality for us who welcome his own Spirit: 'If the Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you'.

Can we take the words “rise again” and “resurrection from the dead” seriously? Are these words that describe reality, or are they just figurative images? These words express a reality that we have not experienced, that is yet to come, that will make us new, and so we listen, open to newness.

Jesus' friend who lives in Bethany has fallen ill, but Jesus, sought after by the Jews to be put to death, has now taken refuge beyond the Jordan. When he is informed of Lazarus's terminal illness by messengers sent by his sisters Martha and Mary, he is not alarmed. They hope that he will come immediately to heal him. But he does not move: he seems unwilling to deal with it, despite the friendship that binds him to him and to them.

From his dialogue with his disciples, we understand that he deliberately did not immediately obey the sisters' request, precisely so that they would realise that he is not a healer, but that the power of the God who gives life acts in him: they do not take this into account, and therefore they do not believe. He knows that if he does not heal him, he will be able to use the words “rise again” and “resurrection”: who knows, perhaps they will come to believe in him? And here he is in front of the tomb. The disciples are afraid, and they wonder why he is ignoring the attempt by the Jews in Jerusalem to stone him a few days earlier.

Right here, in front of the tombstone, the words “rise again” and “resurrection” return, one referring to Lazarus, the other to Jesus himself: Lazarus “will rise again” and Jesus is “resurrection”.

For those present, everything is mysterious, incomprehensible, even impossible. Martha, in fact, points out to Jesus that her brother has been in the tomb for four days already and is beginning to smell. Her words, therefore, are unrealistic for her, at least as she understands them. But there is a faith that will not yield: “I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you”.

We do not understand everything either, but it is not necessary to understand. We know that Jesus will be heard by God, as he has been heard before in impossible situations, even if we do not know how this can happen.

Are “rise” and “resurrection” just plays on words? There is certainly a mystery: Jesus will call Lazarus out of the tomb, and Lazarus will obey him: and it will be a prophecy of the fact that he, Jesus himself, will rise after his already planned death. Lazarus comes back to life before our eyes, so we are prepared to believe that Jesus will rise again. Lazarus' return to life is a true prophecy of Jesus' resurrection, which is reality.

Lazarus stood up, and there he was, bandaged. Now we believe that: “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live; whoever lives and believes in me will never die”. We entrust our lives to the risen Jesus, that is, we believe in him, and our very lives become eternal, divine, holy, true life without the shadows and prospects of death.