The Gospel readings on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Sundays of Lent are not only the readings for Cycle A of the lectionary, but they are also the readings for the scrutinies used to prepare the adult catechumens for their baptism at the Easter Vigil Mass. On the 3rd Sunday of Lent, Jesus encountered the Samaritan woman at the well, pointing to the living water of God’s grace. Last Sunday, Jesus healed the man blind, pointing to the way that Jesus enlightens those who are born to new life in the waters of baptism. Today, Jesus’s encounter with Lazarus at his tomb points to God as the source and giver of life, a foreshadowing of the way that Christ will conquer death through his resurrection on Easter morning.
The new life and light and life-giving waters that Jesus brings into our lives of faith are not just symbols, but a reality. Living water for the Samaritan woman is not just the water from Jacob’s well that refreshes her physical thirst, but it is the refreshing, sanctifying grace that reaches into the depths of our human souls. Light not only illuminates the pool of Siloam where the man born blind is found and where he gains his sight; light is an spiritual enlightenment that brings us a new way of seeing things through the lens of faith.
The living water of God’s grace overcomes the consequences of sin, even our earthly death. The new life that God gives us is to be, in the words St. Irenaeus gives us, “fully alive” in us forever. And God’s light is gives the wisdom in our hearts and minds to see Jesus as “the Way, the Truth and the Life,” as he tells us in today’s Gospel.
The Living Water of grace overcomes the consequences of sin including, eventually, even death; God’s Life-giving is to be, as St. Irenaeus put it, “fully alive” forever. And God’s Light is not just eyes to look but the wisdom to see “the Way, the Truth and the Life,” as Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel.
One striking image from the raising of Lazarus is when Jesus calls him to come out of the tomb. Lazarus exits the tomb all bound up, his hands and feet tied up, and his face covered with a cloth. I picture this figure coming out of the tomb like a mummy. Death is holding Lazarus captive at this point, an earthly death from which Jesus raises him. But all of us can be restricted in life by different kinds of bondage, such as sin or fear or self-absorption or egoism that hold us captive and do not allow us to live in freedom as Christ's disciples. In his letter to the Romans, St Paul addresses how those who are dead to sin can be alive through righteousness and that the Holy Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead will also give life to our mortal bodies. We need to allow the Holy Spirit to live within, to lead us and guide us to new life.
It is interesting for us to note, that when Jesus finally arrives in Bethany to raise Lazarus from the dead, he first tells the crowd, “take away the stone,” which they do. Then, after Jesus prays at the tomb, he cries in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out,” instructing the crowd to untie Lazarus and set him free. Why would Jesus ask the crowd to do these things, when he could have had Lazarus appear in front of the stone and could have had Lazarus free himself from his burial ties? Jesus wants the crowd to participate in the freeing of their friend. We are to come out of those things that are hindering us and holding us back; our family and friends can help us when we are stuck and held captive. The fundamental work of freeing us and liberating us in our faith is done by God. But just as each person must accept the invitation of faith and liberation from God, our family, friends, and community can help by taking away the stones that prevent the person from hearing God’s voice and by helping untie him from the things that bind him. We all as members of the community, the body of Christ, have a role in cooperating in God’s plan.
At the beginning of of Lent, I spoke about how we can view Lent as a pilgrimage in our overall journey of faith, invoking the image of the people of God as a pilgrim people from the Second Vatican Council. We can see ourselves on a pilgrimage journey accompanying Jesus in the desert for 40 days, learning things that we can incorporate on our journey of faith even when Lent ends. I mentioned how on the last three weekends, we had the three scrutinies for the catechumens, the adults who will be baptized at the Easter Vigil Mass. On the first Sunday of the scrutinies, in the context of the story of the Samaritan woman at the well, we can think of the ways we can find conversion and renewal on our Lenten journey, of the ways we can share that conversion and renewal and the joy of our faith with others, just as the Samaritan woman did with the people of her village. On the second Sunday of the scrutinies, we heard the story of the healing of the man born blind. At the masses that weekend, we offered the sacrament of the anointing of the sick to our parishioners. In that context, can think of the ways we can bring healing to others and find healing for ourselves. Then, today, in the story of the raising of Lazarus, we can think of the ways we can proclaim the values of God’s kingdom to the world through our words and actions, by the way we can help free people from those things that bind them. May we think of ways we can live out the lessons of these three Gospels not only on our Lenten pilgrimage, but also after the season of Lent ends.
