FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT REFLECTION:
"Today, as the praying assembly listens once again to the words of Paul, Ezekiel and the Johannine evangelist (in the story of Lazarus being raised from the dead), will we also hear the summons to life issued by God in Jesus? During the life span of any human being, there is, of course, one conclusive and ultimate death. Everybody dies. But there are also many little and large experiences of dying along the way. There are the losses of friends and family whose absences create a dying in our hearts. There are the losses of oppressed and needy brothers and sisters throughout the world whose deaths continue to assault the consciences of those more fortunate. There is the dying of a friendship as it is surrendered to an argument that cannot or will not be resolved. There are the deaths that come as the distances between us grow larger and our times of communion less frequent. There are the inevitable deaths when memory fails, when bones break and muscles ache with the loss of youthful vigor. There are also deaths that come with the loss of a job or a home. In all these experiences of death, believers are assured that these deaths are but a prelude to that final act of surrender to God. Each helps us prepare for the moment that is not an end but a passage to a new and endless beginning. In that final moment, and in all the little preludes of dying that lead up to that moment, Jesus will say to us as he said so long ago at the tomb of Lazarus, "Come out! Unbind him and let him go free!"
(this reflection is by Patricia Sanchez in Celebration's Preaching Resources)
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