The Life - Homily for the 5th Sunday of Lent

 Lazarus was dead. “Dead as a doornail,” one could say. So dead that, when Jesus told the people to open the tomb, the women were worried there would be a stench. And then the miracle happens: Lazarus, who had been dead for four days—four days!—comes out of the tomb, bound hand and foot in the burial cloths. None of us could do this miracle. Humans cannot bring people who have been dead for four days back to life. Lazarus was now alive – because Jesus is God.

 And that’s one of the reasons why Jesus delays His arrival to Bethany. “I am glad for you that I wasn’t there.” Why? So that this miracle could be done and so boost their faith. “That you may see the glory of God and believe.”

 We are afraid of death, aren’t we? That’s one of the lessons we have learned over the past three years. But for some people, the fear of change is even greater.

 After Lazarus is raised, and after the feelings of the spectacular have died down, some of the Pharisees begin to plot to put Lazarus to death – not just Jesus, but Lazarus too. That’s amazing to me: how hard does a person’s heart have to be to not only refuse to accept an undeniable miracle that they could actually touch and see, but then also to want to destroy it because it doesn’t conform with their normal way of doing things. It is truly astounding, the fear that some of the Pharisees had when it came to changing their lives.

 But that’s the purpose of Lent, isn’t it? To have our lives changed. Hear, then, the words of Jesus again when He says: 

Do not be afraid of the one who can kill the body. Be afraid of the one who, after killing the body, can send the soul into Gehenna.

 That is to say: Yes, I understand you have many fears, death and change being a couple of them. But the greatest fear you should have should be about hell – about the death of your soul.

 You see, whenever Jesus does a miracle, there is often a spiritual lesson that is attached. So, last week, Jesus healed the blind man, but it also revealed the spiritual reality that people were blind to Jesus the Messiah. Here, in the raising of Lazarus from the dead, Jesus is also revealing the reality that many of the people were spiritually dead. And He has come to not simply give physical life to the body, but eternal life to the soul.

 Hence He says, “I am the resurrection and the life.”

 You and I are going to die. And we don’t like to admit that fact. But the deeper reality is that, even though we will die in body, we must do everything in our power to make sure we don’t die in soul.

 How could we die in soul?

 Just like physical illness, we can have spiritual illnesses. We can call these “sin.” An illness that can kill you, whether of the body or soul, would be called a “mortal illness.” “Mortal” meaning deadly – like mortal combat or a mortal wound. Such things could bring about death. A mortal illness of the soul is what we call “mortal sin.”

 Now I’m not going to get into what constitutes mortal sin, but rather I just want to point out that it does exist. It is real. And it shouldn’t be a surprise to us. After all, in our games like soccer or hockey there are yellow cards and red cards, minor penalties and game misconducts – offenses that earn us a caution and offenses that get us kicked out of the game. Even in civil society, we have misdemeanors and speeding tickets, but we also have felonies and death penalties. Embracing mortal spiritual illnesses does have consequences.

 Like a stench. And death. And hell. That is what hell is: dying from that illness.

 We can grow “nose blind” to a certain smell, like whatever has died in our car. But a good friend may sit in the passenger seat and go “Phew! What died in here?” You may not notice anymore, but your friend does. So too in our culture and in our lives, we may have gotten used to certain sins and bad habits, but God notices. He isn’t nose blind. Sin smells. And it smells like death.

 And that’s no surprise since sin is opposite to God. To choose sin is to choose not-God; to choose death over the One who is Life. The Resurrection and the Life in fact.

 I say all of this not to condemn in any way, but to tell you that Jesus comes to us, comes to the tomb of our sin and says, “Lazarus! Come out!” Jesus comes not to condemn us, but to bring us new life and the freedom that comes from that.

 Have you ever wondered why confessionals feel so uncomfortable? They are often dark, dank, and have a certain smell to them. It is uncomfortable to confess one’s sins and to admit having embraced the ways of death. But then—then when you emerge from the confessional: you feel the cool air again and you drink in the fresh air and the feeling of being free again. The confessional is the tomb from which Jesus’ forgiveness calls us forth into new life.

 I love it when a person comes in and says, “Father, it’s been… years… since my last confession.” I know, you probably think that is odd that I love that. But I love that. Because that person has been carrying a weight on their shoulder for years. Shame and guilt and sadness and anxiety – carrying that for years – and in this moment I get to remove that weight. I get to cut loose the shackles and set them free. And I get to see that moment. That beautiful moment when a soul is brought back to life and restored to the innocence that they had – no matter how horrible the crime, no matter who deep the spiritual death – I get to see that soul restored to life and restored to the innocence they had at their baptism day.

 This is why I have heard it said (I do forget which saint said it), that it is more miraculous for the soul receiving the new life in confession than the life that was given to Lazarus that day in the tomb.

 I believe that. Lazarus would eventually die again. But if his soul was healthy—that is, free from the illness of sin—Lazarus would live forever in heaven. His bodily resurrection is a foretaste of that. It is also a prefigurement of Jesus’ Resurrection, too – a resurrection that happened after He entered the tomb.

 Which is all to say, not only does Jesus call us out of the tomb – He enters into the tomb. He enters into the stench and the death of our spiritual illness and offers us healing; a new life; true resurrection.

 That is the joy of Easter. And that is the joy that is offered to you in the confessional. Do go this week. Especially if it feels like has been forever. And bring a family member or a friend. We want new life and we want it for everyone. +