Dear Friend,

It is a week for us to begin the Week of weeks, that our Savior Jesus Christ gave His life as a sacrifice for our salvation. Last week, Jesus insisted that the man born blind was born as such not because he or his parents sinned, but for the glory of God to be made manifest. Through the man’s infirmity, the glory of God was indeed made manifest as He was restored to sight and God was indeed glorified. Today, God’s glory is again made manifest through the most frightening of human sufferings – death. Lazarus is risen from the dead as a sign of what He would do for each of us. Last week, we pointed out that there is a double effect when the glory of God is at stake – first His glory, and then the salvation of the individual concerned. Today, the Gospel shows us that there is a triple effect: The Glory of God, the Salvation of the individual, and the Sacrifice for all of these to be possible.

1) The Life of Jesus, the Price for our Salvation

In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the immediate cause of Jesus’ persecution by the Jewish leaders is because He cleansed the temple. In John’s Gospel, Jesus’ persecution begins with the raising of Lazarus from the dead. Today’s Gospel ends with the words: “Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary and seen what he had done began to believe in Him.” We are told that this sparked envy among the Jewish leaders who felt threatened. Jesus wept, not only because of the death of His friend and the tears of his sisters, but also because of the cost He was about to pay by carrying out this miracle: Many would come to believe in Him, the Romans would be notified, the Jews would feel threatened and they would condemn Him to death. Lazarus foreshadowed what Jesus would do for each and everyone of us. Just as it would cost His life to raise Lazarus from the dead, so too Jesus will save us from sin and death by laying down His life for us.

As I prepare for the ceremonies of Holy Week, especially the Vigil, I am very much struck by a line in the Exulted that states: “O love, O Charity beyond all telling to ransom a slave you gave away your son.” This should move us to our knees in worship and gratitude. If we doubted God’s love for us, it’s been manifested beyond all telling on the cross. If we doubted our worth, we need but just contemplate for a second the cross of our Savior Jesus Christ: “when Jesus was on the cross, He thought of me, He thirsted for me, He wept for me, and underwent all of these for me.” Indeed, there is no depth of human misery He has not gone with us and for us, and in order to lead us to the height of God’s glory and our salvation.

2) The Life of Jesus, the Life of life

Jesus is the life who has come not take away anything from us but only that which estranges us from life and from God. Mary and Martha both knew the blessing and power of having Jesus, the Life in their midst. It strikes me that when they each met Jesus, they cried out: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Simply put, where Jesus the life is present, there is no death, any more than there could be darkness where there is light. Jesus goes to Bethany is very significant, even etymologically. Etymologically, the name “Bethany” (from beth, meaning house, and ana meaning, answer, task, affliction, or to sing), could mean house of affliction or house of answer. At this point, it becomes evident to us that Bethany is a place of hope against hope. Bethany is like Mt. Tabor where we are given a foretaste of the Glory of eternal

life to come to strengthen our faith as we make the unknown journey to Calvary believing in our hearts what the Church teaches when she prays: “For those who believe in you Lord, at death, life is changed, not ended.”

Above all, Jesus has come to strengthen us by what He teaches us. Our Lord’s purpose of going to Martha’s house was not simply to raise Lazarus from the dead back to this mortal life but to teach us of the higher life He has come to give us. If His whole point were to raise Lazarus to earthly life and Lazarus would later again die, then there isn’t really much new about what He comes to do. We see the greater purpose of His mission to Bethany in His dialogue with Martha: “Your brother will rise… 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.” Lazarus would some day die again but the new life Jesus comes to give us is eternal. In a word, Jesus uses the raising of Lazarus to earthly life as a sign of the eternal life He has come to give us which will come about at the cost of His own life.

3) The Life of Jesus, the Hope of our Resurrection

In response to Mary’s statement of faith, “Lord if you had been here, my brother would not have died,” Jesus poses a question which every one of us, His disciples would have to answer someone day not theoretically but from our hearts either by ourselves, or by the bedside of a loved one who is dying. Jesus said to Martha and to each of us: “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?” Like the man with his child whom He brought to Jesus, we too can say: Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. Lord, show me how? Jesus responds:

- Believe in my word. Trust in me and entrust your life to Me.

- Believe in my works that back up my words. Take Lazarus as your inspiration. If I can raise someone from the dead, there is nothing I cannot do for you.

- Develop a personal relationship with the Spirit. Both the first reading and the Gospel remind us that we live by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in us. He is the Lord, the Giver of Life: I will put my spirit in you that you may live, and I will settle you upon your land; thus you shall know that I am the LORD. I have promised, and I will do it, says the LORD.

If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit dwelling in you.

Our prayer therefore this day should be: "Lord, give us your spirit. Activate your Spirit within us as we receive you this day in the Eucharist so that we, too, like St. Paul, may say: 'I live, no longer I but a life of faith in the Son of God who loved me and died for me.'” Amen.

Fr. Valery Akoh