FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT ............ 10.04.11

RANDOM REFLECTIONS

FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT ....... 10.04.11

JOHN 11:1-45 ....... I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE.

"Then Jesus, the anger again welling up within him, arrived at the tomb." Jn.11:38. Jesus was terribly upset at what Sin had done to his beautiful creation. Instead of joy and harmony he finds, suffering , sorrow , all kinds of social evils , natural calamities , followed by disease, destruction and death both physical and eternal playing havoc in the life of man. Man the crown of God's creation has tragically  died in sins and has become entombed in it. Jesus opens the door of our dark tombs and removes the shackling bandages of sin and brings our dead selves into the radiance of his eternal love, to heal us and give us eternal life by his Holy Spirit.

All those who come to believe in Jesus become alive, and their dead souls are revived and reborn into eternal life with Christ and they continue to live with Christ with glorified bodies even after their natural physical death. Therefore there is no longer mourning and death for a believing Christian and physical death is only exchanging our present decaying bodies for glorified spiritual bodies. This is not some fantasy. Hear what God speaks in Hosea 13:14

 "I want to free them from the power of the grave.

   I want to reclaim them from death.
      Death, I want to be a plague to you.
      Grave, I want to destroy you.
         I won't even think of changing my plans."

The seven 'signs' concluding with the greatest miracle of raising Lazarus to life just before  Jesus himself enters his own passion death and resurrection is to make us believe in Jesus as Martha and others did. John in his statement of purpose for his Gospel says clearly in Jn. 20:30-31 

 "so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and through believing you may have life in his name."

 So the question for us is, Have we heard the voice of Christ and come out of our graves of selfishness and sin ? Or do we still carry about us the stench of death and the wrappings of the entombed? Jesus says to us as he said to Martha, "Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die (spiritually). Do you believe this? And those who believe in me, even though they die (physically), will live (spiritually)." Those who live beyond physical death will live eternally in glorified bodies with 

Christ. Those who fall into sin have hope of rebirth through repentance in Christ. This is how God marvelously re-creates us through the passion , death and resurrection of  his son Jesus Christ. This is the good news this Lenten season. Lazarus rose from the dead to once again die. We also will one day die but will rise with Christ to reign with him in the heavens. 

We are  called upon to simply believe and trust in Jesus and the power of Christ  working within our souls will transform us. Let us pray for the great gift of faith in our Lord Jesus.

God Bless.