Weekly Reflection

Fifth Sunday of Lent
“Christ is not resigned to the tombs that we have built for ourselves with our choice for evil and death, with our errors, without sins. He is not resigned to this! He invites us, almost orders us, to come out of the tomb in which our sins have buried us. He calls us insistently to come out of the darkness of that prison in which we are enclosed, content with a false, selfish and mediocre life.” Pope Francis

In today's first reading, Ezekiel prophesies that God will raise his people from their graves. In the second reading, St. Paul promises that those who live in the Spirit will receive life through the same Spirit. And in the Gospel, Jesus raises his friend Lazarus from the dead.
 
Jesus presents himself as our resurrection on this fifth Sunday of Lent. The gospel highlights that whoever believes in Jesus already has life, even if he dies. By raising his friend Lazarus, Jesus opens the horizon of Christian hope. For Jesus, death is not the end of everything. Death is a passage. It is the passage to true life. And to merit this life that comes from Christ, we must believe in him. We must be men and women of hope in a world without hope: we must accept that Jesus can manifest the glory of God in our lives like Martha and Mary, who believe in the God of the resurrection.
 
As Christians, our hope and belief in the life hereafter stands at the center of our life. The miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead is a sign confirming the truth of Jesus' statement, "I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" (John 11: 25-26) This sign of raising the dead to life demonstrates that Jesus possesses authority over life and death, even to take up his own life again after he lays it down for his sheep. In his passion, death, and resurrection, we encounter the glory of Jesus in his capacity as the Lord of Life: for his glory and our good, Jesus shepherds us out of death into the resurrected life.
 
Catechism of the Catholic Church
CCC 997: - What is "rising"? In death, the separation of the soul from the body, the human body decays and the soul goes to meet God, while awaiting its reunion with its glorified body. God, in his almighty power, will definitively grant incorruptible life to our bodies by reuniting them with our souls, through the power of Jesus' Resurrection.

Fourth Sunday of Lent
 “The blind man who is healed now sees with both the eyes of the body and those of the soul. But it is not enough to receive light, one must become light. Each one of us is called to receive the divine light in order to manifest it with our whole life.” Pope Francis

In today's first reading, David is chosen and anointed as the new King of Israel. In the second reading, St. Paul invites the Ephesians to live as children of light and uncover darkness. And In the Gospel, Jesus heals a blind man on the Sabbath.

The Gospel presents Jesus as the "son of man," who came to dispel the darkness and heal all our blindness, both physical and spiritual. Unfortunately, his healing of a man born blind does not delight everyone; it even creates controversy around his person. Some are unhappy with his action because they like to rejoice in the misfortune of others. They want to see others languish in their sufferings. The people's actions prove to what extent some would work for the misfortune of others in our societies.

Blindness goes beyond the quality of our vision or the condition of our eyes. It is not only about the darkness around us but the darkness within us. How we see others, what we see in the world, and how we see life is less about the objects of our seeing and more about ourselves. We do not see God, people, things, or circumstances as they are but as we are. Until Christ opens our eyes, our seeing is just a projection of ourselves onto the world. What we see and how we see manifest our inner world. They describe and point to the attachments, fears, and beliefs within us. The interior darkness of our fears, passions, and ideas keeps us from seeing. They cover our eyes like the blind man.

May the Lord preserve us from the blindness that prevents us not only from seeing in Jesus, the prophet of God but also from rejoicing in the happiness of others.
 
Catechism of the Catholic Church
CCC 1504, Often Jesus asks the sick to believe. He makes use of signs to heal: spittle and the laying on of hands, mud and washing. The sick try to touch him, "for power came forth from him and healed them all." And so in the sacraments Christ continues to "touch" us in order to heal us.