Father Gervan Menezes - Mar 22

St. Philip Catholic Church: not sure if you remember, but last week we talked about how I don't understand how people leave Mass beforehand. Remember that? They ⁓ receive Eucharist and run away, and I finally find a reason why. So we had a retreat this weekend, and here's what the guy who was giving us a retreat told me, and I think that's the truth. ⁓ They are full of Jesus, they didn't want go out. and proclaim the good news. ⁓ well. As the Church stands at the threshold of Holy Week, the liturgy intensifies its focus on the mystery of life, death, and resurrection of Christ. The readings today are not merely consoling. They are revelatory, unveiling the deepest truth about God and His saving work in Christ. In the gospel today from John, Jesus reclares, I am the resurrection and the life. This is not a promise about something Jesus will give, it's a revelation of who he is. The prophecy in the book of Ezekiel, I will open your graves and will have you rise, belongs to Israel's hope for restoration for after exile. Yet, it is a phoenix says it points beyond the national renewal towards this cathological resurrection. What was spoken, the figure is fulfilled in truth with Christ. Jesus does not merely announce resurrection, He next. And in doing so, He reveals that resurrection is not an abstract event, but is the participation in His own divine life. The narrative carefully holds together two essential truths of Christology. Jesus weeps, revealing that he is truly human. Jesus called Lazarus from the tomb, revealing his divine authority over death. And this unity of human compassion and divine power reflects the mystery defined on the Council of Chalcedon. Christ is one person in two natures, fully human and fully divine. His tears are not something just to show off. They are salvific. For in entering into human grief, Christ begins the transformation of death for within. The deeper horizon of his gospel is not simply physical death. But at St. Paul calls in the piece of today's Romans, it reigns for sin and death. Lazarus' tomb signifies the conditions of fair humanity are bound by sin when we are deprived of divine life and we know that we are incapable of self-redemption. When Christ cries, Lazarus, come out. more than a miracle, it's a sign pointing to the definitive victory that will occur on his own passion in resurrection. The Church Fathers constantly read this passage on the light of baptism. ⁓ emerging from the tomb prefigures the baptized Christian. And we have so many people who are to be baptized on the Easter Vigil. Lazarus, emerging from the tomb, prefigures these baptized Christians, called out of death, washed and restored, brought into life in Christ. As St. Augustine says, Lazarus' resurrection differs from Christ's resurrection. Lazarus returned to mortal life. Christ rise to glorify incorrupted life. the very life into which we are incorporated sacramentally. This gospel invites us to examine whether we are living according to the grace already given to us on the day of our baptism. Jesus command, take away the stone. That's very interesting because Jesus could have done that himself, but he asked others to do it. Why is that? Because God's grace invites our corporation. And here we encounter the mystery of grace and human freedom. Jesus cries out, Lazarus, come out. That is not just a simple miracle. It's a personal call. And here is something beautiful. If Jesus had said simply come out, tradition says that everyone in the tombs would come out, would have come out. He calls Lazarus by name. God calls each one of us personally, not in general, not vaguely, but directly. Come out of our fears, come out of our sins, come out of our despair. God's grace is always primary. Only Christ can raise the dead, yet he wills that human beings cooperate in the removal of the obstacles that we have. This refraction, this reflects the contrary understanding of grace. Grace does not destroy freedom. Grace elevates it and perfects it. The stone represents all resistance that we have from grace. Hardened seeing spiritual complacency, refusing for conversion. There are stones in our life that God is asking us to move, pride, refuse to forgive, resistance to change, fear of letting go. We cannot raise ourselves, but we can open the way for Jesus to do it. After Lazarus emerged, Jesus commended others to unbind him and let him go. This reveals the role of the Church in the economy of salvation. Christ alone raised the dead, but He entrusted the Church's ministry of losing and freeing, especially throughout the sacraments—Baptists, Reconciliation, and the Eucharist. The community becomes an instrument of liberation, participating in Christ's redemptive work. Even after new life begins, Lazarus is still bound. This is where the Christian community comes in. We are meant to help one another to grow, to heal, to become free. This is why confession, encouragement, and community matter. Look the people in OCIA, they are not here by themselves. They have people helping them in this process. And we are called to help each other. That's why I love baptisms during Mass, because we have to understand that sacraments is not something for me. It's for the whole Church. I would love to have marriages during Mass. What mess do you go for? ⁓ well, let's work on that first. And then we just get outside for donuts and coffee and we celebrate your marriage. Dads will be very grateful for that. Yeah, sign me up. But so many times we think it's all about me. It's my marriage, it's my sacrament, it's my, no it's not, it's the church. And you participate on that. And this gospel goes beyond itself. The raising of Lazarus is both a real historical miracle, but it is a sign of the final resurrection at the end of time. It also foreshadows something even greater, Christ's own passage through death. Unlike Lazarus, Jesus will not be caught out of the tomb by anyone. He will rise by his own divine attorney. making us new creatures. This is not only about the end of time. Resurrection is not just the future. It begins right now. Every time we turn back to God, every time that we choose grace over sin, and every time that we allow Christ into our tombs, we too experience resurrection. At the heart of this gospel is a deep personal truth. Christ calls us by name and He calls each one of us by name as well. This revealed salvation is not anonymous, it's a relational, personal, and concrete thing. The same Lord now speaks through His word and His Church addressing each one of us, calling us out of sin into grace. out of death into life, out of isolation into communion. As we approach Holy Week, the questions that we have are not simple whether we believe in the resurrection. The questions are personal and deep. What is the tomb in your life right now? What is that rock that you need to let it go? God. Do we recognize the voice of the one who calls us out of our tombs? And how do we respond to that call? Are we willing to hear Jesus call us by name? For the one who stood before the tomb of Lazarus now stands before us, saying to us, I am the resurrection and the life. In him, death no longer has the final words because he is ready stand at the entrance and he's saying to us, come out.