Readings – http://www.usccb.org/nab/041011.shtml
We find ourselves at the 5th Sunday of Lent and during the last three Sundays of Lent, we hear various aspects of Jesus’ mission being progressively revealed.
On the 3rd Sunday of Lent we heard of Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan Woman at the Well and we were reminded of Jesus’ reconciling mission. He reconciled the Samaritan Woman to God and then to her community. Indeed, this woman, who previously was so separated from her community that she was sneaking to the well for water (water that she needed to survive) at a time when she wouldn’t encounter anyone, ended up presenting Jesus to the whole community and through her the whole community was saved.
On the 4th Sunday of Lent we heard of Jesus healing the man born blind, reminding us here of both Jesus’ healing mission and, more importantly, of Jesus’ ability to illuminate all of us and give us direction, purpose in life.
Today, on the 5th Sunday of Lent, we hear of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, reminding us that Jesus is able to give New Life to us all.
Now here two things need to be said about both the miracles that we heard last Sunday and this Sunday:
First, we do have to believe that Jesus was capable of performing the miracles presented. After all, we remember Jesus as God and God _can do anything_ (which is pretty much the definition of God, or certainly part of the "job description" of God, that God can do _anything_). And so we have to believe that Jesus was able to perform the miracles that he hear him doing in the Gospel. However, secondly, we need to remember that Jesus was not merely a miracle-worker and that his miracles were best understood on a symbolic value where these miracles are capable of touching us all.
I say this because there were many people who were blind in Jesus’ time (and many who were "born blind") just as there are many people who are blind/born blind today. Jesus chose NOT to heal EVERY blind person. Instead, Jesus healed _only a few_, including _that particular man born blind_ and not many others. Why? Well it was probably because "blindness" is _not merely physical_. Most of us know people who live lwithout direction, who seem to living it BLIND. They don’t know what’s coming, they seems to crash repeatedly into obstacles that others see clearly, and again not merely physical obstacles but walls, constraints, traps, that exist in life. Jesus shows us through this miracle that he is able to "illuninate" / "give direction" (hope, peace, guidance) to even people who’ve "walked blindly through life" even from birth, thus saving them again from falling into needless problems and traps that perhaps others are able to see "from a mile away." Jesus is capable of doing this.
The same could be said of the Gospel reading from today. Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. He didn’t raise everybody from the dead during his life. He simply raised Lazarus, and then (obviously) _only for a time_ because Lazarus eventually died just like all of us will eventually die (leave this world) as well. There is no 2000+ year old Lazarus living out there in Bethany today. Yet, Jesus is able to give New Life to us all.
And I think we know people who are living today as if they were dead. Perhaps we ourselves have found ourselves in situations that we thought that our lives were over, or that we were in such a depression that we appeared to others or even to ourselves as being effectively dead. In this miracle, Jesus shows us that he is capable to give us new life, new hope even in the midst of tragedy, even in the midst of death.
***
Now, many of you know that I like movies. I even write about them now. But those of you here know that I generally keep away from using them as examples here in my homilies. I prefer to take examples from my life or life as I’ve observed it around me over the years. Today though, I do wish to take the other tack and actually use a recently released movie to make the point here. (I do this because here because going too personally into my life here may not be particularly helpful or appropriate _here_, even if I do certainly believe that Jesus gives us new life, AND that I probably would not be standing here if I did not _believe this to be true_ AND have not _experienced this to be true_ as well).
I say all this because this time I do really prefer to use a movie as an example. And the movie is the movie Soul Surfer that was just released in the theaters this weekend. I like it for all kinds of reasons, among them that the movie was explicitly Christian (though also _not_ particularly preachy about it).
It’s about a 13 year old girl who was growing up in rural Hawaii, really having quite a blessed life, living just off the beach, home schooled for a few hours each day and then spending the rest of the day surfing. What a wonderful way to be growing up! And she even had hopes of becoming a competitive surfer, having already won some junior championships.
Anyway, all that was ended or was certainly put on hold, when in an instant a shark came up while she was surfing one day and bit off one of her arms all the way to the shoulder. She was lucky to have survived at all.
And in an instant, her life was radically changed. And the movie was great at showing this. How does one butter a toast with only one arm? How does one squeeze orange juice? Even though the movie was largely about her surfing life, these basic changes and new obstacles in her life were shown quite well.
Well, needless to say this tragedy caused her difficulty, and yes, even as a 13 year old, she did reflect on it, asking her youth group minister, how could it be that THIS (the loss of her arm again all the way up to her shoulder so even a prosthesis was unworkable) could be "part of God’s plan." And the rest of the movie was about working out an answer.
Part of the answer came when she joined her when sometime later she joined her youth group in going to Thailand after tsunami there – and this again was a poignant trip for her and the rest of the group for the very same waves that gave them so much joy growing up in Hawaii had caused so much tragedy to the people in Thailand. How could this be?
And yet, without saying a word, the movie came to show the fundamental Christian belief that ANY situation, indeed ANY tragedy can become an invitation, that ANY situation, ANY tragedy can be redeemed.
The girl in this movie started to play with the kids giving them rides on her surf board bring smiles to faces and reaquainting them with the water that had caused them so much pain, in a new and happier way. She of course comes back and restarts her surfing career, etc, etc. But she also sees the water and indeed her purpose in a new way. She becane a hero to all kinds of kids who suffered similar tragedies and she started to see her surfing not merely in terms of competition but in terms of giving people, all people joy. What a great movie! And what a great message!
And it’s a message that we see here in the Gospel Reading as well.
Yes, there will be times when tragedy will send us "into a tomb" for a while. But as Christians, we have a faith that DOES FUNDAMENTALLY BELIEVE that EVERY TRAGEDY can be converted into something positive. Yes, every cloud has a silver lining and yes, "if Jesus closes one door, he (or Mary) opens a window as well." We are a people of hope, a people of New Life.
And we hear this today.
So let us reflect on this more this coming week, during our remaining time of lent. And let us hope to bring the message of these last weeks to others around us who may need to hear it: That God/Jesus can bring us back (reconcile us), that God/Jesus can bring us light and give us direction in life, and God/Jesus can always give us "New Life" even if we may feel at times as if we were already in the Grave. God gives us hope. And let’s then seek to pass it on.
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