Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Lent, Year A

Take Away The Stone And Rise

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Lent, Year A

St. Pius X Catholic Church, St. Paul, MN

Sunday, March 20, 2021

Two weeks ago, we read the story of the woman at the Well, someone caught in the pattern of concupiscence desire. She is thirsty for God, but she is looking for God in the wrong places. To her Jesus says, I am the living water and I will give you the living water that will finally satisfy your longing heart. Last week, we read the amazing story of the man born blind. The man born blind stands for all of us because in Original Sin we are all born blind. We don’t see as God sees. To him Jesus says, “I am the light of the world.” So, if you want to see properly, then be grafted unto me. Today, we read the story of the raising of Lazarus from dead, an event that affords Jesus the opportunity to make a richer and more powerful self-identification statement of himself. In the story of the woman at the Well, Jesus is the living water. In the story of the man born blind, he is the light of the world. In the raising of Lazarus from dead, he is the greatest of the “I AM” (ἐγώ εἰμι— Ego Eimi) statements in the Bible: “I AM the resurrection and the life.”

What is our God so interested in? Life! The great second-century theologian, St. Irenaeus of Lyon, while talking about the essence of Christianity declares, “The glory of God is a human being fully alive!” What gives God joy and glory is that we are fully alive. What saddens God is when we allow death to reign in us at any level physically, psychologically, and spiritually. When death reigns in us God is grieved and saddened. In today’s first reading taken from the Book of Ezekiel, God says, “O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them.” Those words from the prophesy of Ezekiel echoes what our God is about. Whatever grave you are in— be it hatred, resentment, envy, unforgiveness, whatever it is that is limiting your life, restricting you, constraining you like someone in the grave, God wants to help you rise. God wants to set you free. He is not interested in the ways of death but in the ways of life.

In the Gospels, there are three people that Jesus raised from the dead. The first one is a little girl, the daughter of a synagogue official named Jairus who falls at the feet of Jesus and pleads, “My daughter is at the point of death. Please, come lay your hands on her that she may get well and live” (Mark 5:23). Upon hearing Jairus’ plea for his daughter, Jesus goes with him. But while they are still on their way, some people from Jairus’ house meet him and say, “Your daughter has died; why trouble the teacher any longer?” His daughter died in the house while Jesus was still on the way, however she was still raised from the dead by Jesus with the words, Talitha Koum, which means, “Little girl, I say to you arise!” (Mk. 5:41) The second person that Jesus raises from dead is the son of the widow of Nain. Jesus and his disciples are going to the city of Nain. As they come closer to the gate of the city, the funeral procession of a man who has just died is taking place. The dead man is the only son of his widow mother. Jesus sees her weeping profusely, moves forward, touches the coffin and raises the dead man by saying to him, “Young man, I tell you, arise!” (Luke 7:11-17). The third is Lazarus, a name that means “God has helped.” 

Now, these biblical narratives are factual descriptions. Jesus really did raise these people from dead physically. However, St. Augustine’s meditation on each of the three miracles can help us have a deeper understanding and appreciation of what Jesus did. St. Augustine knows that the Gospels operate at different levels. He also knows that the Gospel writers are communicating a deep spiritual truths with each of these miraculous acts. What does the little girl that Jesus raises from the dead symbolize? Augustine says she stands for spiritual death, sin, spiritual dysfunction that remains inside. The little girl dies in the house. She symbolizes spiritual death that remains locked up in our minds and hearts. They have not expressed themselves yet in action; however, they are poisoning us in the inside. Those resentments, grudges, bitterness that make us say within us, “Gosh, I can’t stand him!” “She is mean and nasty.” “I am still mad at her for what she did to me.” These resentments may not be expressed in words and actions, which is good, nevertheless, they are festering on the inside, poisoning our thoughts, will and imagination. St. Augustine says the little girl, the daughter of Jairus stands for that kind of death, spiritual death. We may even lie or deceive ourselves by claiming to be good persons. But Jesus is not satisfied with that. He wants to go into those spaces where unspoken evil thoughts have killed and bring them back to life. He wants to heal us of that spiritual death. The second case is the son of the widow of Nain. The young man is already dead and is being carried outside the house to the cemetery. Who does he stand for? Augustine says he stands for that spiritual death, that sin which has come out from the heart and mind and has begun to express itself in action. That our resentment, anger, grudges and bitterness has now started to express itself. They are coming out in our words, in our gestures and deeds. This is an intense spiritual death. Again, Jesus approaches this individual and raises him from dead. The third person that Jesus raises from the dead is our brother Lazarus. Lazarus has been carried out of the house, he has been placed in a tomb, and by the time Jesus gets there, he has been four days in the tomb. When Jesus asks that the stone placed over the tomb be taken away, Lazarus sister, Martha kicked, “Lord, by now there will be a stench.” How does St. Augustine read this? In his grave, Lazarus stands for that evil, that spiritual death, which has not only come out from the heart and mind into action, but has now established itself as the habitual part of our life. This means that those anger, hatred, resentment, bad thoughts etc has come out and become such a part of our life and activity. When this happens, we begin to stink, which is to say, we begin to affect a lot of people around us. Our own spiritual death is no longer our problem, but the problem of a lot of people. According to Augustine, Lazarus represents the worst kind of sin. 

Sisters and brothers, during Lent, the Church challenges us to do a moral inventory of our lives. Lent is a good time to look at each of these types of spiritual death— the interior, the exterior, and the stinkiest part of our life that is affecting the people around us. If Jesus is willing to go even to the grave of Lazarus and brings him back to life, he will go to the furthest, smelliest, darkest and the most dysfunctional state and invites us back to life. Some of the saddest comments I hear some people say are: “Father, believe me, I am not worthy to serve in the capacity you are asking me to serve;” “Father, what I have done is so bad that I don’t think God will forgive me;” “Father, I don’t go to confession because there is no need, no point going. It is just too much.” People who make such comments are saying that their spiritual death has become so complete, so rotten that they are beyond the reach of God. But the Gospel story of Lazarus is saying, FALSE! WRONG! No body, not even those who think they are trapped in evil are beyond the reach of the forgiving power of Jesus Christ. He goes even to those darkest places to find us and bring us out. But we must let him go inside of us. 

Two details of the raising of Lazarus that are not often emphasized are what Jesus did when he approaches the tomb. The Gospel says that Jesus was greatly disturbed as he approached the tomb. Jesus, the very incarnation of Yahweh groans as he approaches the tomb. What does that mean? St. Augustine says it is God’s deep pain at our dysfunction. If the glory of God is a human being fully alive, that means that when we don’t flourish and can’t flourish, God in Christ is perturbed. He groans in a deep desire to get us out of that situation. The second detail is found in what we have come to know as the shortest verse in the entire Bible: “Jesus Wept!” This is God weeping for us in our sin. It breaks God’s heart when we are not fully alive. God is not so much weeping in anger here. He is not groaning because he is so angry with us. He is groaning and weeping because we are not alive, and he wants us alive. 

Now, what are we supposed to do? The answer is found in the Gospel story: “Take away the stone” (John 11:39). A lot of people feel they are stuck; they feel they are living in darkness. They feel they are not able to rescue themselves from the situation they are in.  They feel they are in a tomb. They feel there is a stone to be rolled away and there is no one to help them. As such they become fearful and despair. The good news is that Jesus’ power is greater than any power of sin. After the stone was rolled away, Jesus speaks with authority, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man rises and comes forth. Imagine the Lord naming you, calling your name even if you are in the darkest corner of spiritual life, and saying to you, “come out!” Jesus wants us fully alive for that is his glory. He wants us thriving and alive. Again, we must let him help us. “Take away the stone.” Take away the addiction, the habitual sin, the spiritual dysfunction. Take away the stone— that is everything that causes you to stumble and fall over and over again. Unless the stone is taken away, you cannot rise from your spiritual death.