God Has Helped

Gospel: John 11: 1-45

The raising of Lazarus is a curious story and we wonder what to make of it.  Jesus raises the man from the dead, only to have him die again.  Imagine dying twice in a lifetime!  One wonders what the point of the miracle was to be.  Was it merely an antic of apologetic to demonstrate power and get people to believe in Jesus?  This seems unseemly and unbecoming of an authentic spirituality.  Lazarus merely becomes a pawn in a game and not a person as an end in himself with dignity.  

It is perhaps best to see ourselves in Lazarus, just as we are to do in the Samaritan woman at the well and the man born blind.  Jesus tells his disciples that Lazarus is asleep and we must go and wake him.  We too are asleep, dead in our tombs of self-interest and egoism.  Our spiritual death can only be cured by an appeal from the Lord: arise! Unbind him.  We hear this voice of the Lord and come out of the depths of our tomb and slumber.  

We are now awake, alive again.  The name Lazarus means 'God has helped.'  God has helped us to arise and break free from our self-interest and ego.  We have been given a second chance at life again.  How will we respond to this gift? We do not know how Lazarus spent that time, but that is not important.  What is important is our own life and how we will now spend it.  Will we spend it as we did before, or will we follow the Lord in a life of mercy and care for others? 

Excessive Certitude

Gospel: John 7: 40-53

In today's Gospel portion we find religious leaders who are convinced of the identity and origins of Jesus.  Without ever speaking with him, they have determined through hearsay and their knowledge of the law and scriptures who Jesus is and who he is not.  They make a determination and decree, ending all conversation and debate on the matter.  When shown that their methods are in contradiction to the law they claim to uphold, they resort to name calling and condemnation.

If all of this sounds familiar and reminiscent of Christian behavior throughout the ages, it is because this phenomenon occurs when we institutionalize religion, when we attempt to take a fundamental experience of God and place it in a box, seeking to control it.  We seek certitude in the very thing that cannot be circumscribed and understood - the very mystery of God.  Our inability to sit with the mystery leads us to insecurity, false certitude, and violence against anyone who does not agree with us.

Instead of making sand castles of false certitudes this Lent, let us just sit at the seashore and contemplate the vastness of the ocean, the infinite grains of sand, and recognize that here in this scene is the mystery of God that dwells among us.  Rather than seeking to shape the sand into our own image and likeness, let us just let it be and allow ourselves to be absorbed into the mystery of the Lord, and to let that mystery transform and shape us.   

Going to the Feast

Gospel: John 7: 1-2, 10, 25-30

The Feast of Booths, or Sukkot, is an autumn harvest festival in Judaism.  It celebrates both the harvest as well as the Exodus story.  It is a festival of hospitality where people share their food at table with others.  At the time of Jesus this festival was one of the pilgrimage feasts where people would come from all over to Jerusalem for the celebration of the festival.  It is for this reason that we find Jesus in Jerusalem in today's Gospel portion and not in the familiar region of Galilee.

Yet, Jesus attends the feast secretly for two reasons.  The first is that there is a plot to put him to death.  The irony of a festival of hospitality being the backdrop of a plot to kill Jesus is one of the many ironies of the Gospel.  Yet Jesus has more important reasons for going secretly.  He has repeatedly taught his followers to seek the lowest places at festivals, to not put on airs and public displays of false piety so as to be noticed.  HIs quiet presence at the festival is entirely consistent with Jesus' other actions and statements.

As we approach the great festival of the Triduum we might well consider our own posture and demeanor.  Are we going to attend the feasts in order to be seen, or are we attending them so that we might encounter the Lord in an authentic way and to be transformed by their narratives? A little bit of Lent still remains for us to practice our comportment for the upcoming festival days and how we might enter into them with humility and an open heart.