03-Apr-2011 Dear Friend,
Everyone of us experiences, from time to time, depression, helplessness and despair when everything seems to go wrong. We struggle to gain control over things and put things right but nothing seems to work out and we tend to give up on life. When we wallow in despair, our faith challenges us to look up and climb out of the pit of despair. God's help is at hand. His coming is as certain as the coming of dawn. Can we hear His voice challenging us to come forth and be alive'? Have a hope-filled weekend! Fr. Jude Sunday Reflections: Fifth Sunday of Lent -'Come out of your graves and be alive!' 10-Apr-2011. Ezekiel: 37: 12-14; Romans 8: 8-11; John: 11: 1-45; In today's first reading the prophet Ezekiel is concerned about the exiled Jewish people who were terribly down hearted over the loss of their temple, their city and their country. They were in despair because there was little left for them. To these depressed people Ezekiel says in God's name "I am going to open your graves, and bring you out. I will put my spirit in you and you shall live!" As hopeless as things are, God is not abandoning his people, He will come and bring them new life. New Hope The symbol of the resurrection is the phoenix. According to legend only one phoenix could live at a time. The Greek poet Hesiod said, it lived nine times the life-span of the long-living raven. When the bird felt death approaching, it built itself a pyre of wild cinnamon and died in the flames. But from the ashes there then arose a new phoenix, which tenderly encased its parents ashes in an egg of myrrh and flew with them to the Egyptian city of Heliopolis, where it laid them on the altar of the Sun. These ashes were said to have the power of bringing a dead man to life. Scholars now think that the germ of the legend came from the Orient and was adopted by the Sun-worshipping priests of Heliopolis as an allegory of the sun's daily setting and rebirth. Brian Cavanaugh in 'The Sower's Seeds' The Gospel of John contains the lengthy story of the resurrection of Lazarus. Jesus is informed by Martha and Mary that Lazarus is critically ill and dying. They expected Jesus to come immediately but Jesus delays and Lazarus dies and is buried and Jesus comes a few days after. Martha cannot understand why Jesus did not come promptly and complains: "If you had been here, my brother would not have died." At the same time she affirms her faith in Jesus: "But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of Him." Like Mary we are tempted to complain when God does not act immediately in our lives. Caught up in pain and loss we ask: "Why has God not heard my prayer? If there is a God then why this meaningless suffering?" The Gospel tells us that Jesus was deeply moved at the death of Lazarus and when they took him to the graves of Lazarus he was moved to tears. Jesus reveals that he feels deeply for his friends. Sometimes God does not act immediately. He permits things to happen but he does act in His time. Jesus assures Martha that Lazarus will rise again. Martha acknowledges that Lazarus will rise again on the last day. Jesus intervenes and affirms: "I am the resurrection and the life, whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live." Martha believes in the words of Jesus but does not understand till he calls Lazarus from the grave. "Lazarus come forth!" and Lazarus came back to life! Jesus is constantly calling us to come forth, to come alive, to rise up out of tombs, from whatever is keeping us down. On our own we cannot make it, but He is the resurrection and his promise is fulfilled today and always. God's Living Word In today's gospel, when Mary and Martha wanted Jesus to know that their brother was sick and near to death, the message they sent was: 'The one you love is sick.' Jesus would know that it was his friend Lazarus who was in danger. Yet, knowing it, he allowed him to die and did not turn up until a few days after the funeral. Certainly, Martha felt that Jesus had let them down badly. But it was not so. Through Lazarus' death and return to life, Mary and Martha had their faith in Jesus strengthened and their friendship with him deepened. Sometimes we feel let down by God and we retreat from his friendship. Friendship with God or with another person is a precious gift. Like all precious things it must be protected and nurtured through trust given and received in times of apparent failure as well as in times of joy. Tom Clancy in 'Living the Word' I'll Open Your Graves! On July 8, 1998, in Kapadwanj, Gujarat, the body of Samuel Christian, was exhumed by Hindutva activists from a Christian cemetery and dumped outside the Methodist church. A group of Vaghris, a so-called 'backward community', had encroached on the cemetery-land with patronage from politicians and claimed that the land belonged to them. This grave incident heightened tensions between the Christian community and those instigated by Hindutva fundamentalists. Something similar happened January 2, 2005, at Lampulo beach, Indonesia. An Achenese fisherman, Tengku Sofyan (24) was trapped under his boat for a week after the tsunami struck. Sofyan's lifeline almost became his tombstone when rescue operators found him wounded and severely dehydrated. The raising of dead Lazarus was certainly more dramatic than the exhumation of a dead body or the rescue of someone trapped under debris. Nonetheless, today's readings proclaim: "I'll open your graves!" Francis Gonsalves in 'Sunday Seeds for Daily Deeds' Most Athletes Cried One of the most touching moments in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles came by surprise. It happened one night on prime-time television, after Jeff Blatnik of the United States defeated Thomas Johansson of Sweden for the gold medal in Graeco-Roman wrestling. When the match ended, Blatnik didn't jump up and down. He didn't throw his arms into the air. He simply dropped to his knees, crossed himself, bowed his head, and prayed. When the camera zoomed in on his face, millions of viewers saw the torrent of tears pouring down Blatnik's cheeks. Blatnik had every right to cry. But it wasn't because he had taken the gold. There was a bigger reason. Two years before, Jeff Blatnik had contracted cancer. Eighteen months before the games, he had undergone surgery. And now in the face of great odds, he had won the second biggest battle of his life. The next day all major newspapers carried Blatnik's story. Referring to Blatnik's tears, sportswriter Bill Lyons wrote: "One of the most worthwhile things about the Olympics is that they remind us of the cleansing, therapeutic value of a good cry. "You watch the gold medalists mount the victory platform and listen to their national anthems, and in almost every instance their eyes begin to mist..and that's what happened in Blatnik's case. Jeff Blatnik became an instant hero, not because of his victory over Johansson, nor because of his victory over cancer, but because he shared his humanity with us. Mark Link in 'Sunday Homilies' What a Friend We Have in Jesus One of the simplest and the most consoling hymns ever written is: 'What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and grief's to bear! What a privilege to carry, everything to God in prayer! O what peace we often forfeit; O what needless pain we bear, All because we do not carry, everything to God in prayer.' Joseph Scriven wrote this hymn in 1857. He was a Christian missionary working in Canada. When he heard that his mother was seriously ill in Ireland. He could not go there to be with her. Instead, he wrote a consoling letter enclosing it with the words of this hymn, and mailed it to her. He offered to her in her illness the company and the comfort of Jesus. He knew that in times of illness and loneliness, there is none who can give us a better company and comfort than Jesus. There can be no greater friend then Jesus. John Rose in 'John's Sunday Homilies' Your Easter! A college student was flying from Pittsburgh returning home for the Easter holidays. Her first year of college was nearly over, and it was a disaster. She was convinced that life no longer held any real meaning for her. Her only ray of happiness lay in the fact that she would soon see the ocean, which she loved dearly. Her grandmother met her at the gate, and the two of them drove to her home in complete silence. As they pulled into the driveway, the girl's only thought was getting to the ocean. It was well after midnight when she arrived at the beach. What happened next is best described in her own words. She says, "I just sat there in the moonlight watching the waves roll up on the beach. Slowly my disastrous first year passed before my eyes, week by week, month by month. Then suddenly, the whole experience fell into place. It was over and past. The next thing I knew the sun was rising in the east. As it did, I sensed my feelings starting to peak, just as a wave starts to peak before it breaks. That morning I, too, arose! It was as though my mind, heart and body were drawing strength from the ocean. I rose with the sun, got into my car and headed for home." In the short span of an Easter vacation, she had died and risen again. For the first time in her life she understood the practical meaning of Easter. Brian Cavanaugh in 'The Sower's Seeds' May we experience new life in the midst of death! Fr. Jude Botelho [email protected] PS. The stories, incidents and anecdotes used in the reflections have been collected over the years from books as well as from sources over the net and from e-mails received. Every effort is made to acknowledge authors whenever possible. If you send in stories or illustrations I would be grateful if you could quote the source as well so that they can be acknowledged if used in these reflections. These reflections are also available on my web site www.netforlife.net Thank you.
