April 6, 2025

5^th Sunday of Lent (A) 3^rdScrutiny 

New Life for Lazarus and Us!

Msgr. Thomas Gervasio

 
Today we come to the third and final scrutiny for the Elect, those who are to receive the Sacraments of Initiation at Easter. The first scrutiny highlighted water at the well in Samaria, the second highlighted light at Siloam where the blind man received his sight. Today we come to Bethany where Jesus raises Lazarus from the tomb, highlighting the theme of life.
 
The sisters, Martha and Mary and their brother, Lazarus, were Our Lord’s closest friends. Did you ever wonder why Jesus delayed going to Lazarus after he was told, “The one whom you love is ill.”? He set out for Bethany after two days. Why didn’t Jesus drop everything and rush to the bedside of his friend? By the time he arrived in Bethany, Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days!
 
Our Lord knew what he was doing. His delay had a purpose. He declared, “This illness is not to end in death but is for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” He would raise Lazarus as a sign of what was to come. It would foreshadow the Lord’s resurrection. It was an extraordinary reminder that Jesus had the power over the dark and cruel mystery of death. Lazarus would have to die once more. But at Easter Jesus would rise never to die again. In Christ, death does not have the last word. What was a scene of despair and grief is transformed into a scene of hope and new life.
 
The Church also sees in this event, a lesson about Baptism—the Sacrament of rebirth and new life. Lazarus emerges from the tomb, bound hand and foot with burial bands and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus commands, “Untie him and let him go!”
 
This is what happens in Baptism. Those bands and wrappings that bound Lazarus in darkness and death are our sins and the grace of baptism removes them. We then can see and move in a new light and life.
 
Lazarus was reborn and so are we through baptism. Just as Lazarus’ life was never the same, so is the life of one who is baptized. We are given a new vision of things, a hope on which to cling. Pope Benedict reminds us that Christians, do not live “just like everybody else” and that “those who have hope, live differently.”
 
When Amanda, Brianna, Jonathan, and Michel make their baptismal promises and we renew our own at Easter, we are saying…I reject Satan and all his empty show (the values of the world)… and I embrace Christ. We shall be saying to all…this is my identity. These promises influence the values I hold and the choices I make throughout my life. I have been given a new life and a freedom to live in a new way. I will not allow myself to be transported by despair but by the hope that Christ offers us.
 
Let’s rejoice in this hope and this gift of new life and seek to be always faithful to its obligations.

5^th Sunday of Lent (C) 

Sin is Serious Stuff as is God’s Mercy

Msgr Thomas Gervasio

 
Centuries ago, displayed in my 4^th grade classroom, was a quote of the young St. Dominic Savio: “Rather death, than sin!” I doubt one would find such a quote in today’s classrooms. Evidently, my teacher was determined that even at the age of nine, we should know that sin is serious stuff.
 
Today’s Gospel is a drama about sin—the sin of a woman caught in adultery. According to the Law, she should be stoned to death. But the Scribes and Pharisees drag her before Jesus to ask his thoughts on the matter. Their actual intent was to place our Lord in a dilemma, to entrap him so that they would have a case against him. If Jesus advocated stoning the woman, he would discredit all he taught about God’s mercy. If he replied that she should not be stoned, he would be guilty of violating the law for which he could be prosecuted.
 
Our Lord took his time to reply. He bent down and traced on the ground with his finger. We cannot know what he traced. Some suggest that he just doodled reflecting on the question. Others say that he wrote the sins of the woman’s accusers. Whatever the case, he finally said, “Let the one among you without sin, be the first to cast a stone at her.” The accusers dropped their stones and went away one by one. Our Lord had literally disarmed them! He eluded the trap set for him and the woman escaped a gruesome death.
 
The crowd gone; Jesus was left alone with the woman. “Woman, has no one condemned you?” he asked. “No one, Sir,” she replied. “Neither do I condemn you! Go, but sin no more!” Here we see the merciful heart of God. Before all else, God desires our salvation…to raise us when we fall into sin…to restore our dignity. Pope Francis says, “God does not nail us to our sin, he does not identify us by the evil we have committed.”
 
Yet, while Jesus does not condemn the woman, he tells her: “Go, and sin no more.” He doesn’t make light of the sin. He doesn’t say, “Don’t worry about it, it’s really nothing.” Here is a lesson for us lest we fall into the sin of presumption. This is the notion that because God is all-merciful God, I can be comfortable to commit the same sins over and over again, without the slightest effort to change, but just be certain to get to confession on Saturdays…an attitude that becomes an appearance of contrition rather than a true contrition.
 
God’s mercy endures forever, to be sure, but this does not mean that God doesn’t care about our actions. To love without condition doesn’t mean to love without concern. In our Act of Contrition we say, I am “heartily” sorry, not I am “hardly” sorry. We also say, “I firmly resolve with the help of thy grace to sin no more and to avoid the occasions of sin.” A phrase I found very curious. Is that actually possible? St. John Paul II provides an answer:“The resolution not to sin anymore…is not a matter of being certain that one will not commit the same sin again but rather of the will not to do so…We tend to approach religious and moral life with too little patience, as if it were like a surgical operation or injection which will make us immediately better again…Change is a long term process.”
 
Isn’t this the challenge of Lent? Treat yourself to the consoling gift of Confession in preparation for Easter. The Lord’s words to the woman are also for us: Neither do I condemn you…God and from now on, do not sin anymore.