REVERSAL!
Ezekiel 37:12-14; Romans 8:8-11; John 11:1-45
I was in Grade 5 when the school showed us a film. It was a thrill to see the shades drawn in the school library and a 16 mm projector set up facing a blank wall. After the film, a few students were hanging around; the art teacher, rather than rewind the film, showed it in reverse. We laughed at the strange images: disintegrated objects were reconstituted, buildings crumbled by earthquakes took shape, people who had been knocked cold came back to life. It was fascinating!
Today’s readings are a vivid description of God’s power to run the film of life in reverse and to revive the lifeless.
Ezekiel (first reading) tells the exiles—dead in heart and spirit—that God will open their graves, raise them, and put his life-giving spirit in them.
Paul (second reading) writes to the Romans that God’s spirit gives life to our mortal bodies.
The story of the raising of Lazarus (gospel) shows us the kind of God we have: our God
- does not intervene every time to remove pain/suffering and death;
- is with us amid our suffering; he is one with us, compassionate and empathetic;
- gives us life.
The recurring narrative today is one of fear and death. We can easily get overwhelmed and bury ourselves in a tomb of fear.
Jesus tells us what he told Martha: “I am the resurrection and the life” and asks us the same question: “Do you believe this?”
The liturgy challenges me to
- make an act of faith that God feels my pain and is one with me.
- spread the hope that God will revive our lifeless and listless world.
- be a life-giver through empathy with people who are suffering.
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