Homily
for March 9, 2008
Liturgical Year A- Cycle II
5th Sunday of Lent
By Fr. John Carney Topic:
Live in Christ
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Gospel
John: 11:3-7, 17, 20-27, 33b-45 The sisters of
Lazarus sent word to Jesus, saying,
“Master, the one you love is ill.” When
Jesus heard this he said, “This illness is not to end in death, but is
for the
glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and
Lazarus. So when he heard that he was
ill, he remained for two days in the place where he was. Then
after this he said to his disciples,
“Let us go back to Judea.” When Jesus
arrived, he found that Lazarus had already
been in the tomb for four days. When
Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him; but Mary sat
at
home. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if
you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I
know that whatever you ask of
God, God will give you.” Jesus said to
her, “Your brother will
rise.”
Martha said, “I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last
day.” Jesus told her. “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?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe
that you are the
Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.” He became
perturbed and deeply troubled, and said, “Where
have you laid him?” They said to him,
“Sir, come and see.” And Jesus wept. So
the Jews said, “See how he loved him.”
But some of them said, “Could not the one who opened the eyes of the
blind man have done something so that this man would not have died?” So Jesus,
perturbed again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay
across it.
Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”
Martha, the dead man’s sister, said to him, “Lord, by now there will be
a stench; he has been dead for four days.”
Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the
glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus
raised his eyes and said, “Father,
I thank you for hearing me. I know that
you always hear me; but because of the crowd here I have said this,
that they
may believe that you sent me.” And when
he had said this, He cried out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”
The dead
man came out, tied hand and foot with burial bands, and his face was
wrapped in
a cloth. So Jesus said to them, “Untie
him and let him go.” Now many of the
Jews who had come to Mary and seen what
he had done began to believe in him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The story of Lazarus is such a
familiar Gospel story for
us. One of the questions that comes up
when you read this is that when Jesus was informed that His dear friend
was
very sick, it says He waited two days before He set out to visit
him. By that time, Lazarus had been dead four
days. Why did Jesus wait those two days?
It’s quite clear from reading the Scripture, He made the deliberate
decision to wait the two days. Then He
must have known the pain and grief that Mary, Martha, and others who
loved
Lazarus would have suffered. However, He
was to bring them an infinitely greater good by waiting two days and
arriving
after Lazarus had died, because he would raise Lazarus from the
dead. The people would be given a sign, a foretaste
of Jesus’ resurrection and of their own resurrection from the
dead. In so doing, God would be glorified. As Jesus said,
“This illness is not to end in
death, but it is for the glory of God that the Son of God may be
glorified
through it.” In John’s Gospel, John doesn’t use the
word “miracle,” he
uses the word “sign” for this event, that this was a sign. It
remains a sign for us today. It was a sign of God’s cosmic plan
to save
all humanity, to save all creation in and through Christ. It was
also a sign of God’s personal love for
us, for Jesus wept out of love for His friend.
He entered into the passion of the human condition, for He was fully
human. Jesus weeps for every one of us
when we suffer as well. This cosmic God,
who saves us all through His Son, is a personal God who knows us all
personally
and loves us all dearly. The story of Lazarus parallels our own
Christian story
because we were born dead to sin and we were raised up again alive in
the
waters of Baptism. Like Lazarus then,
the second death has no power over us.
We really believe that. Death no
longer has power over us because we have been raised in and with Christ
Jesus. “Blessed and holy is the one who
shares in the first resurrection; the second death has no power over
him.” (From Revelations) You know it would be interesting
if Lazarus
had written an autobiography of his life.
I’m sure he would have divided the book into two parts: part one
from life to death; and part two
from death to life. I know that the
years that Lazarus spent after the resurrection were years spent in
peace and
joy because he knew, he knew where he was going. He knew that
death had no power over
him. You know, there have been people
brought back to life,
especially today with modern medicine, the miracles that we see almost
on a
weekly basis. There have been people who
have been dead who have been made alive again.
There was a story a couple of years ago, a Protestant minister, I think
it was in Texas or Oklahoma returning from a conference and he was run
off the
road by a truck and it took a day and a half for them to find
him. When the ambulance came, there were no vitals
at all and he was cold. They put him in
the ambulance and he came to. He wrote a
book about this Part Two of his life that he’s leading now.
Perhaps you know someone who was not expected
to live. I know several. I also read the story of a
recipient of, one
of the very first recipients of a heart.
A man named Leo Boyd received a heart from, the surgeon was Michael
DeBakey, and of course, the name is familiar.
Leo Boyd was on the transplant list and a young woman died while giving
birth to her child. The family decided,
well she could give life to two people that day. They donated her
heart. Leo received the heart and lived for only 16
months after the transplant. However, he
praised and glorified God for every moment he had, time he spent with
his
family in those last 16 months. His wife
was asked was it worth it because it was only 16 months and in those 16
months,
he continued to be very sick. He was
never able to get out of a wheelchair.
He was limited. His wife said,
“Oh, yes. It was worth it.” As I mentioned, he praised God
every day, he
spent time with his family, his wife, his children,
grandchildren. He was somewhat of a VIP, he was a bit of a
ham, and so he enjoyed being honored everywhere he went. He was
even able to see a man walk on the
moon in July 1969. She said it was worth
it because that was the best 16 months of his life. He was not
afraid of that second death for it
had no power over him. I know of another case of a woman
named Carmen, Carmen
Jaramillo. In April of 2000, she went to
church on a Sunday morning. I think
Carmen was about 55 years old at the time.
After Mass, she went into Albuquerque with her daughter and had a
massive heart attack. Fortunately, they
were very close to the University Hospital in Albuquerque. The
daughter took Carmen in and within hours,
she had received a heart bypass. Her
condition was very bad and she was not expected to live. The next
morning, or maybe it was that
afternoon, I was in the waiting room with the family, when the doctor
came in
and said, “She may have an hour or two to live.
Now would be a good time to visit her, touch her, and pray over
her.” Before the family did that, I
gathered them in prayer. Now I have to
be honest with you, I’m somewhat of a fair-weather prayer. Before
I pray for rain, I usually check to
see if there are some clouds because I want to look good. You
know?
I think I had said, in fact I remember this, it was rather traumatic,
you know. I remember the waiting
room. I remember her hospital room. One remembers things
that really make an
impression on you. I said that we’ll
pray for the grace of a happy death, that God will take her to Himself,
and all
those things. But you know what? I said none of that.
I just blurted out words that I didn’t think
about. I said, “Lord, please save
Carmen. Bring her back to us, because
You may be ready for her and she may be ready to go but her family is
not. Please spare her.”
Well, obviously, you know where the
story is
going. Carmen did survive. Several weeks later, she was out
of the
hospital. She lost a leg and I don’t
know how that happened. They harvested a
vein from her leg and there was no circulation.
She continued to bleed after the surgery. They were just pumping
blood into her. This was a hopeless case. Guaranteed, she
would die. Well, she lived. I saw her several weeks after
that and she
was in a wheelchair. She had a great
smile. I said, “Tell me about that
day. Do you remember the trauma?” She said, “No.
I don’t remember any of that.
What I remember is meeting (I was in heaven, I’m sure), I saw all these
beautiful women with these very gracious smiles.” I said to her,
“Did you see any men at
all?” She said, “No. I was at peace and I was happy and
then the
angels took me back. They took me back
to the hospital. I didn’t see the angels
but I heard their wings.” She said, “Do
you believe that?” I said, “I believe
that.” You have heard these stories as
well, these near death experiences. To
make a long story short, she said, “I’m going to get a
prosthesis. I’m gonna walk again Father. I’ll be in Mass
soon and I’ve got a new lease
on life.” Carmen changed because of
that. She was always a good Christian
woman but pretty tough. After this
experience, she just completely changed.
She wore a perpetual smile. She
glowed with happiness, peace, and joy, although she was confined to a
wheelchair for several years. She was no
longer argumentative. There wasn’t a
cynical bone left in her body. She was a
new creation in Christ Jesus. I tried to
call her yesterday and I couldn’t find her.
She’s moved, I believe. Her
husband died about a year ago. I just know she’s doing just fine.
That second death, she’s not afraid of
because she’s already been promised eternal life by Christ. A
wonderful story. Carmen’s death was worth it, that
first death, as it was
for Lazarus. You know, wouldn’t it be
great if we could get the lesson, or receive the lesson that Carmen
Jaramillo
and Leo Boyd received without the pain.
We can, if we pray for that. If
we just really believe that Christ loves us, that He died for us, and
that He
will take us to Himself. If we could
live, each one of us, not fearing death, we would live so much
better. We would be so much more peaceful and
joyful. The late John XXIII, the Blessed
John XXIII, Pope John XXIII, learned
this at age 60. He wrote in his personal
diary, when he was 60, on his birthday, he wrote, “I am getting
old. I must prepare for death. I should simplify my
life.” Well, after that he was made a Patriarch of
the Church, then a Papal Nuncio, and then was elected Pope. Every
year on his birthday, he wrote in his diary,
“I am getting old. I must prepare for
death. I should simplify my life.” Each and every one of us
can write those same
words today in our daily diary. We can say that none of us is getting
younger. I must simplify my life, must set my
priorities right, my family, my God and get things in order. If
we do that, we’ll be at peace and we’ll be
more joyful. St. Paul said this, “For to
me life is Christ and death is gain. If
I go on living in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me and I do
not know
which I shall chose. I am caught between
the two. I long to depart this life and
be with Christ for that is far better.
Yet that I remain in the flesh is more necessary for your
benefit.” Live in Christ, every day of your
life, simply,
beautifully, and joyfully. You will find
peace here, now, and forever.