5th Sunday of Lent Cycle A Year I

"...whoever believes in Me, though he should die, will come to life"
Many of us at times experience losses in life. They may come in the form of the loss of a loved one, the loss of employment, the loss of a relationship, the loss of a fortune, the loss of health, or any other loss that can bring real sorrow in our lives. In times such as this, we grieve and we become sorrowful. We feel a space in our hearts or in our life that was not there in the first place. And then, if we are not strong enough to endure the loss, we may lose faith.

In the gospel story, Lazarus has died. He, together with his sisters Martha and Mary, was a friend of Jesus. When Lazarus died, Martha felt the loss and expressed it to Jesus when they spoke with each other. Mary also felt the loss and her feeling of grief was intense that she cried together with the others close to their family. Jesus, overcome with compassion and love, felt the loss too. But He asked Martha if she believed in the Resurrection and Martha said, yes. She said that her brother would live again in the end time when all the dead will be brought to life. Jesus at this point wanted to bring her faith in the present when He said that this life is not in the future but now in the present: for He Himself is the Resurrection and the Life. And so, through the power of God, He raised Lazarus back to life.

Sometimes, when we are overcome with our losses and remember so much the past, we forget the gift of life that God gives us in the present. Even if we have suffered losses - the loss of anything very valuable to our life - there is hope. And that hope is realized not in the future but right now in the present through our faith in Christ as the Resurrection and the Life. If we only believe that He will always be our Life as we receive Him in the breaking of the bread during the Eucharistic celebration, we will always live in Him and death shall not be in our hearts and minds. If we believe we shall be forgiven for our sins when we ask His forgiveness and mercy, then life shall be brought back to our souls and light shall dwell in our being. Life in its fullness shall indwell in us if we but believe in Jesus who gives Himself everyday and every moment. We need only to listen to Him in much prayer and contemplation: in the silence, in the reading of the Scripture, in our adoration, and in our moments of solitude.

4th Sunday of Lent, Cycle A Year I

"I came into the world to divide it...to make the sightless see and the seeing blind."
In the gospel today, Jesus is calling all of us, especially those who are sightless, to see Him with the eyes of faith. For those of us who already have a mustard seed of faith, we are called to see Him more as the Truth, the Life, and the Way. We are called to have more faith in Him. There are times in our spiritual journey when we see ourselves as righteous and 'in the right'. When we do so in an attitude of pride and arrogance, we really blind ourselves to the truth that we are weak and sinful. We become so obsessed with the idols of power, money, fame and success that we become blind to the true God in Jesus. Often, we become so when we are too much involved in the affairs of the world that we forget that it is in Christ that we have our strength and our power in life. It will take only a sudden turn of events where we may experience the pain of others, a sickness in the family, or a sudden accident, or a tragedy that we realize how blind we were to the truth that God is really there for us and we refuse to believe that He is so and that we don't need Him. But when we realize that we are wrong and when we realize our sinfulness and our being also in the wrong despite our lawfulness in terms of obeying all the rules of our society, we still lack the love we should show our Lord. And this makes us blind. Accepting our sinfulness and swallowing our pride will make us see Christ as our Savior and Healer and Redeemer of all mankind. If we do not accept our sinfulness and our pride, then what we think that we know and what we assume that we see, really is not and we are really in the darkness. Only the light of Christ's grace can make us see. And we shall indeed see and always return to sight whenever we turn to God in humility and repentance and ask His mercy and forgiveness for the sins we have committed. Then we shall see as clear as the light of day and the light of the Spirit of God shall indwell in us forever. Just as the blind man in the gospel was healed from his blindness, so shall we be healed from our blindness when we turn to Christ alone, and to turn to Him in utter faith and ardent belief in His love and mercy.

3rd Sunday of Lent, Cycle A, Year I

"A fountain within him, leaping up to provide eternal life"
Every one of us has experienced thirst, especially physical thirst. When we do so, the only thing that shall quench our thirst would be either a refreshment or just plain water. If we live in a hot environment, we know how much value drinking water is to us. The hot environment makes us easily perspire and so we lose a lot of water from our body. We take more occasions to drink water and we finally realize that we shall always be thirsty if the heat never lets up. The hotter the weather becomes, the more we need water.

If we make an analogy for the need for God, then when we are in an environment of sin and sinfulness and darkness and degeneration, then those of us who truly need God to live, need Him more and more every moment of our life. Are we in such an environment already? If compared to the weather that is becoming hotter and hotter and the need for water is greater, if our environment is degenerating more and more everyday, then indeed our thirst for God and His most Holy Spirit will be increased all the more.

We are not to worry and to fret and to be frightened when the time comes when the world becomes really very sinful again. If we trust in the Lord with our whole heart, with our whole mind, with our entire soul and our entire strength and if we hope in Him as if He is the only Hope we really need, then we are like a tree that is planted near the waterside. This tree stretches out its roots to the stream where it gets its nourishment. This tree does not fear when the heat comes or drought arrives because its leaves stay green and it continues to bear fruit - all because its roots are stretched out to the water.

How much more we are if we stretch out our roots, as it were, to the Holy Spirit. Then the water shall become like fountains within us leaping up to provide us with eternal life.