RISE UP!
Happy 5th Sunday of Lent. In less than 2 weeks’ time, we will once again celebrate the Sacred Paschal Triduum, culminating in our glorious celebration of Easter Sunday of the Lord’s Resurrection. Are you ready & prepared for this most important time?
Let us now use the readings of Year A to guide us along as we pray for our Elect in their 3rd Scrutiny. To re-cap, we reflected on Living Water 2 weekends ago; last weekend, we looked at Light & Sight; and today, we encounter Risen Life in the Spirit.
Who’s or what’s dead in your life right now? Are you grieving over the death of a loved one? What hopes & dreams did you once cherish but have now faded away into the land of the impossible? What relationships that were once the joy of your heart have now gone, rendering you sad & heart-broken?
In today’s 1st Reading from Ezekiel 37:12-14, we have a very powerful prophecy of the Lord raising His beloved people to new life & breathing His Living Spirit upon them. In the earlier verses of Ezekiel 37 (not read at mass), we see the dramatic account of the Spirit bringing the prophet to a valley full of dry bones, very dry & very dead. Then by the power of the prophetic word, the dry bones came together, with muscles, flesh & skin & with the breath of the Spirit, these dry bones experienced resuscitation & came back to life!
Our Gospel account in John Chapter 11 speaks of the raising of Lazarus. In the last of His 7 Signs in John’s Gospel, Jesus, who declared that He is ‘the resurrection and the life’ (cf John 11:25) brought His dead friend Lazarus back to life!
Today, can you recognise some areas of your life that are literally like dry bones – dry & very dead? Your health, marriage, family life, friendships, finances, work, faith & spiritual life? Have you been knocked down by life’s problems, failures, defeats, guilt & shame that you have given up? Are you crying out in hopelessness, desperation & despair like the house of Israel: “Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely” (cf Ezekiel 37:11)? Then hear the Word of the Lord in our 1st Reading speaking to your heart. Jesus is assuring you that God will ‘open your graves & raise you up’, ‘put His Spirit in you’, & ‘resettle you on your own soil’, that is, bring you home to a place of hope, joy, acceptance & salvation. Then most importantly, with faith in Jesus the Risen Lord, claim the promise that Jesus, the Resurrection & the Life, will raise you up & give you eternal life!
I love St Paul’s letter to the Romans Chapter 8 (where our 2nd reading is taken from). which speaks of Life in the Holy Spirit. What a beautiful promise that “if the Spirit of him who raised Christ from the dead is living in you, then he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your own mortal bodies through the Spirit of God living in you’ (cf Romans 8:11). Once again, then, claim the Word & live this Risen Life!
What, then, can we repeat on our lips and mind & heart this week as we keep our eyes on Jesus? I propose the Response to the Psalm: “With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.” (Psalm 130:7) Because all that God is doing for you is due to His great love for, & mercy towards you; because God wants you to participate in the fullness of His redemption & salvation!
Here’s a beautiful hymn based on the Responsorial Psalm, called “With the Lord”.
https://youtu.be/XmFRTC7VRa8?si=73FwFf1tW5DUXoPJ
Article by Damian Boon, HFC Blog Team Lead