I Am the Resurrection and the Life: Ezek 37, Rom 8, and Lazarus in Jn 11

Ego sum resurrectio et vita: qui credit in me, etiam si mortuus fuerit, vivet.
Jn 11:25

The Fifth Sunday of Lent in Year A draws near to the high point of the Lenten journey with three texts on death overcome. Ezek 37:12-14 announces the opening of the graves and the restoration of life to the people of Israel in exile. Rom 8:8-11 affirms that the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in the faithful and will give life to their mortal bodies as well. Jn 11:1-45 recounts the raising of Lazarus: Jesus arrives when Lazarus has already been dead four days, proclaims that He is the resurrection and the life, and calls Lazarus out of the tomb. The three texts describe the same movement: from below upward, from the grave to life, from exile to the homeland.

I. The First Reading: Ezek 37:12-14

Ezekiel’s oracle is addressed to an Israel that feels itself dead: the exile in Babylon was lived as a burial. The Lord answers with an unprecedented promise: “I will open your graves and bring my people out of the grave, and I will lead you into the land of Israel” (Ezek 37:12). The language is a metaphor for the return from exile, but it transcends the metaphor: in the New Testament the promise of the real resurrection will be seen here. “I will put my spirit within you and you shall live” (v. 14). The Spirit of God is the principle of life: where He enters, death draws back. The context of the great vision of the dry bones (Ezek 37:1-11, which precedes this oracle) underlines that it is not the quantity nor the quality of what exists that determines the possibility of life: it is the breath of God. Lent ends with this promise: however arid the desert may be, however dry the valley of bones may seem, the spirit of God can make life spring forth.

II. The Second Reading: Rom 8:8-11

“Those who live according to the flesh cannot please God. But you do not live according to the flesh, but according to the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you” (Rom 8:8-9). Paul distinguishes two modes of existence: according to the flesh, confined to human horizontality, and according to the Spirit, open to the life of God. “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies, through his Spirit who dwells in you” (v. 11). Paul’s argument is precise: the Spirit who brought Jesus out of the tomb on Easter Sunday is the same Spirit who dwells in the baptized. The resurrection of Jesus is not an isolated fact: it is the principle and the guarantee of a resurrection that will reach all those in whom the Spirit dwells. Lent prepares for Easter: what will be celebrated on Easter Sunday is already happening within each baptized person.

III. Evangelium: Jn 11:1-45

Lazarus, the brother of Martha and Mary of Bethany, is ill. The sisters send word to Jesus. Jesus waits two days and then sets out. When He arrives, Lazarus has been dead four days. Martha goes out to meet Him and says: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died” (Jn 11:21). Jesus answers: “Your brother will rise again” (v. 23). Martha confesses that she knows he will rise in the resurrection on the last day. Jesus proclaims: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, even if he dies, shall live. And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (vv. 25-26). Martha confesses: “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God” (v. 27). Then Mary of Bethany arrives, falls at Jesus’ feet, and weeps. Jesus is deeply moved and weeps as well (v. 35). He goes to the tomb, orders the stone to be taken away, prays aloud to the Father so that the crowd may believe, and calls out: “Lazarus, come out!” (v. 43). Lazarus came out still bound in the burial cloths. Jesus commanded: “Unbind him and let him go.” Many of the Jews who had come saw what Jesus did and believed in Him (v. 45).

IV. Mary and the Resurrection Anticipated

Ezek 37 announces that God will open the graves: Mary knew the grave in a singular way, the tomb where they laid the Son on Friday afternoon, and where, through the night and the Sabbath, she awaited what she could not yet see. The Spirit who “overshadowed her” (Lk 1:35) at the Annunciation is the same Spirit of whom Rom 8 affirms that He will give life to mortal bodies. Mary’s Assumption is the personal application of the promise of Ezek 37 and of Rom 8: her mortal body received the life of the Spirit who raised Jesus, and she was lifted up into glory before all the others. Jn 11 presents two attitudes before the mystery of death: Martha, who argues and confesses with theological precision, and Mary of Bethany, who falls at Jesus’ feet and weeps without words. The Virgin Mary is the synthesis of the two: she who confessed in the Magnificat the greatness of God who raises up the lowly, and she who on Calvary remained in silence at the feet of her dying Son, like Mary of Bethany at the feet of Jesus before her brother’s tomb. The Fifth Sunday of Lent announces what is about to happen: the “Lazarus, come out” of Easter Sunday for which the Church has been waiting two thousand years.