I am late today but want to post to prepare for the Fifth Sunday of Lent. Again, there is a choice of readigs as we can use the Mass for the last Scrutiny which has the Gospel of the woman taken in adultery or the calling back to life Lazarus who had been dead four days when Jesus went to the tomb and told his dead friend to "come out!" Both Gospels are rich for reflection. Let us take John 11: 1-45 that begins with Jesus hearing that Lazarus was ill. The message Mary and Martha, his sisters, sent to Jesus is, "Master, the one you love is ill." Jesus said that this illness is not to end in death but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it. So, Jesus remains two more days and when he finally goes Lazarus has been in the tomb for four days. John tells us that "Jesus wept." Here we see the human Jesus who loved and grieved. Then he acts as the Son of God and has the stone removed and calls Lazarus forth from the tomb. This is a miracle that causes many of the Jews to believe in Jesus and certainly must have caused his enemies to want to get rid of him.
I made a retreat in Chile once and remember this meditation so vividly although I cannot remember the preacher of the retreat. The idea is that we were all dead and needed to hear Jesus call us forth from the tomb - Sal Fuera! Come out; be set free and begin to live seems to have been the theme.
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