Fifth Sunday of Lent
It was Friday before last. I had just finished celebrating the morning Mass at the parish. I got a call that the brother of someone who I had buried 2 years back was in his last hours. I rushed as quickly as I could to find Lewis Poteet surrounded not by family members but by caring friends. I prayed with Lewis and administered the sacraments for the last time. Having been with hundreds of people during their last moments, looking at Larry’s eyes, I knew that it was only a matter of minutes. I barely got home after the anointing, and I got news that Lewis had passed away. On Tuesday, I celebrated his funeral mass.
What I have shared with you may seems like a simple story. But in those few minutes the entire mystery of the incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus was replayed. In those few moments, the origin and destiny of humanity was revealed. In those few moments salvation happened!
I would like you to now think of someone dearly beloved that you have lost. This is the real and honest truth. No matter what the circumstances of their death – the incarnation, the life, and death, and resurrection of Jesus is our hope, our comfort, and our peace. It is their salvation and ours.
Death and Dying
Physical death is the most helpless of human experiences. There is no escaping the grip of death. The inevitability of death along with the grief of separation is the most painful part of death. In today’s gospel reading, Mary, Martha and Jesus experience that pain. They grieve. They weep. Jesus too wept.
That day, Jesus offered Martha and Mary a way out of the pain and destruction that death brings. Jesus said to them, “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?” At that moment Martha made her faith confession, saying, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.” In this confession, Martha not only got her brother back, but she found her own salvation.
Practical Implication. Death is a moment of pain and grief. Even as painful as death is, the death and resurrection of Jesus assures us that we do not lose our loved ones forever. Just as Lazarus was back with his sisters, we too will be together again with our beloved dead. But every death is also faith-encounter. Like Mary and Martha, death becomes a moment for us to confess that Jesus is our resurrection and our life. And in that very confession we find life and salvation.
Sin - Living Death
There is another kind of death – sin, the living death. In today’s second reading, Paul says, “If Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is alive because of righteousness.” The contrast between sin and grace, between flesh and spirit is a very Pauline thought. Paul was a dualist who saw the spirit or soul as trapped in the body or flesh. In his thinking, the body is an obstacle to the righteousness.
No matter how we understand the flesh-spirit or sin-grace dynamic, our faith teaches us is that it is by sin that death entered the human condition and deprived us of eternal life. Our faith also teaches us that whereas Jesus is our way out of death, Jesus is also the way out of the destructive power of sin.
Each Lent is an invitation to recognize the seriousness and implications of sin. Sin is as destructive as death. Sin causes as much pain as death. Sin is another kind of death! Sin is death! But Lent is also an invitation to enter in another conscious process – allowing Christ to redeem us from the destructive power of sin.
This Thursday, our five parishes will gather for the communal celebration of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Let us discern the movement of the sprit within us and respond to God’s invitation to reconciliation, righteousness, and life.
Weeping with Those Who Weep
I want to return for a moment to the story of Lewis Poteet. He came from a poverty-stricken family. There was poverty, there was mental illness, there was abuse, there was ill-treatment at school. Lewis and his siblings had a hard life. None of them married. Lewis was the last survivor of the family. His life was a hard and difficult life.
Not often, but we do meet people who are alive but feel dead, don’t we? Those who experience chronic depression, despair, hopelessness, addictions or those who are trafficked, abused, and homeless know what it means to feel deprived of life.
As on the day I anointed Lewis, there was no family member at the funeral too. But, like Jesus who wept with Mary and Martha, his school classmates of old gathered and gave him a fitting farewell. I was deeply touched by these men and woman who became his family when he had none.
The tiny detail that “Jesus wept” is not only a comforting detail but also an invitation to us to “weep” with those who weep. We will all experience death, but while we are alive, we can bring hope, comfort, and strength to those experiencing death in any form. Like Lewis’ friends, we can bring comfort and peace and defeat the sting of death. We can be Christ to them.
Today’s Eucharist is a celebration of life. Like Mary and Martha, let us allow Christ to save us, heal us, and bring us to life.
- Fr. Satish Joseph