Fifth Sunday of Lent
March 26, 2023
Today’s liturgy invites us to reflect and respond on the call to LIFE, true life, which we find when we listen to the voice of Jesus, the Good Shepherd.
The account of the resurrection of Lazarus shows us that life overcomes death. Light overshadows darkness, sadness gives way to joy, hope gains strength, and love expands as a vital force! This gospel invites us to search for the Light of Life in a reality where we detect many signs of death.
In the two biblical phrases, “Lazarus, come out!” and “Untie him and let him walk”, Jesus calls us to life and teaches us that we need to take concrete steps to break with all that limits or imprisons us. In “untie him”, He reveals that we also need to count on the help of others, which evokes Synodality, an invitation to “walk together”. These two teachings are motivations for hope and commitment.
To come out of the tomb, to be untied, free, is a call to renew life, a gesture of love from Jesus to his own. In this, we learn from Father Gailhac who tells us: “Not to love is to remain in death, and to be in death and not to rise is not to love. Let us love to come out of the tomb and let us come out of the tomb to love.” (GS/26/III/77/A*. Vol. I, p. 305). From this teaching of Gailhac and the liturgy, we are invited to reflect on the love of Jesus for us, his surrender to the project of the Father and the great trust the Father placed in Him.
Let us cultivate the certainty that we are not alone, and that it is necessary to “hope” in humanity as a sign of trust in the Father.
As the psalmist says, “In the Lord I put my hope; I hope in his word”, let us put all our trust in the Lord and be, for the people around us, a sign of New Life! Let us come out of our graves and contemplate the manifestation of God’s love that happens here and now.
Daniela Linno, RSHM
Brazil
