5th Sunday of Lent
(Sunday 2nd April 2017)
The invitation to life – (John 11:1-45)
In the Gospel for the third Sunday of Lent we heard how Jesus is the living water that takes away our thirst. Last Sunday, we heard how He is light of the world. This Sunday we have the greatest of what are called the “I am” statements of Jesus. He says: “I am the resurrection. If anyone believe in me, even though he dies he will live, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die“. This is one of the great statements of Jesus. He is telling us how He is interested in life.
St. Irenaeus of Lyon once said: “the glory of God is a human being fully alive.” What gladdens the heart of God then is to see us fully alive, because God is interested in life not death. He is as He says the God of the living not of the dead. How then are we to be fully alive? It is by accepting the invitation that Jesus offers to each one of us, that invitation to friendship with Him. This is the life that each one of us are called to. This is a life that we begin here and now in this life and is ultimately fulfilled in the glory of heaven.
Jesus offers to each one of us this opportunity to enter into this new life with Him, to enter into a friendship with Him. Jesus longs for us to unbind ourselves from the whatever holds us back from Him. No matter where we are in our lives, no matter what we have done, God is always there offering to us this gift of new life with Him. He has come to bring life and invites us to accept this life. Death was never part of God’s plan and so He asks us to turn away from those things that obstruct us in any way from the life that Jesus offers to each of us. We see in the Gospel how Jesus wept for His friend Lazarus who was dead. Jesus weeps when we choose death rather than life with Him. Jesus longs for us to choose life, His life that He offers, His friendship that He offers. This friendship transforms us, recreates us, gives us new life, a life where we share in the very life of God Himself.
This is what it means to be fully alive, to be friends with Jesus who loves us and longs for us to love Him. Take up the invitation Jesus offers to you today, the invitation to life. Allow Him to unbind you from whatever holds you back from this life and allow Him to transform you to become more like Himself each day.
Fr. Eoin Casey O.P.