Since sin caused death to enter the world, sin puts its imprint on everything.  However, death cannot defeat the God of life and of the living. As soon as God’s people turn from their sin, God delivers them from their graves. Indeed, from the very beginning, He promised that death will not have the last word. “I have said it, and I will do it” – he says over and over again.

This Sunday, the Gospel presents the miracle of raising Lazarus from the grave to life. Through this sign. Jesus declares that He himself is the resurrection and the life and “whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” We must be truly amazed at what happened with Lazarus and understand the significance of that sign.   In last Sunday’s gospel, the blind man who was healed by Jesus exclaimed: “It is unheard of that anyone ever opened the eyes of a person born blind.”  Even more so, what can we say about the miracle of the raising of Lazarus? Only Jesus, and nobody else, is able to perform such a sign. It is obvious that years later, Lazarus had to die anyway, and his body completely decayed in the grave as it also started to disintegrate before Jesus’ arrival to Lazarus’ grave. Jesus did not come to earth to heal people from their illnesses or raise to life some of them. He came to the world to give us LIFE that will never end and offer us “living water” – the FAITH, as he offered it to the Samaritan woman, that leads to eternal life.  The raising of Lazarus is a sign and foretaste of something even more unimaginable: not just rising from the dead, but the RESURRECTION. First, the resurrection of Jesus, and next, the resurrection of us to everlasting life at the end of time.

The process of moving toward life starts at baptism, in which we are born in faith. Still living under the law of death and aware of the end, we can and we must, be animated by the Holy Spirit, lead a life free of the control of sin and our mortal flesh, with the assurance that one day we will share in the Lord’s resurrection.

We are just two weeks before the solemn celebration of Easter – the commemoration of Jesus’ resurrection. Let’s use this time fruitfully. Find time, even if it is minimal, for meditation, personal prayer, make a thorough examination of conscience, maybe offer alms for people in need, pray for the end of military conflicts in many places in the world, or undertake a form of fasting.  These last days of Lent are also a good time for sacramental confession, especially on the evening of our parish Lenten reconciliation on March 26, from 5:30 pm until 7:30 pm. Do not lose this opportunity that God is offering you through the ministry of the Church.

Fr. Mark Jurzyk