When he created us, God’s intention was always that we may share in his life and glory for all eternity in Heaven. The Book of Wisdom makes this clear: “God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living” (Wis 1:13). The cause of death is disobedience to God, which is sin. God gave the man (Adam) this command: “You are free to eat from any of the trees of the garden except the tree of knowledge of good and evil. From that tree you shall not eat; when you eat from it you shall die” (Gen 2:16-17). Adam disobeyed, and death was the consequence. Every human being afterwards shares in this condition of death, which became the “normal” condition of our fallen human nature.
The physical death which all human beings experience is not a result of personal sin but a general human condition for which God himself will provide a remedy. What is really dreadful is spiritual death, which can last for all eternity. This kind of death is caused by our personal sins, which are always decisions to disobey God. When we disobey him, we separate ourselves from the One who is Life, the real Source of life – and the consequences are most grave.
This was the sad experience of those who were taken into the Babylonian exile, which, in the Biblical tradition, represents the exile from God that results from sin. Today’s first reading is God’s message to the exiled people, who are in a death-like, hopeless condition. Through the prophet Ezekiel, he says, “O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them, and bring you back to the land of Israel…. I will put my spirit in you that you may live.” God is the God of life; he wants the people he has created to share in his life. And so he always provides a solution to those who suffer the death experience of separation from him through their sin. He also provides a solution to those who are experiencing death-like situations due to the sins of others.
The whole of humanity is in a sort of exile, under the threat of condemnation to death. The message that God addressed to his exiled people is also addressed to us. God himself will open our graves; he will put his Spirit in us and will settle us in the Promised Land – Heaven. The prophecy of Ezekiel, addressed to the whole of humanity, is fulfilled for us by Jesus Christ. Jesus, knowing that on our own we are powerless to overcome death, came into the world to give us new life: “I have come that they may have life and have it to the full” (Jn 10:10). Jesus Christ himself is the solution to the problem of death and to all the different death-like circumstances of life in which we may find ourselves.
The raising of Lazarus from death is a powerful sign that Jesus is the one who has come to open our graves, just as Ezekiel prophesied. After he learned that Lazarus was sick, Jesus even waited for him to die so that he could use this “sleep” of death as an occasion to show everyone that he is truly the one who gives life. The raising of Lazarus shows that Jesus has come to put his Spirit in us that we may live. It is also a sign and an anticipation of his own Resurrection – which God wants us to share in for all eternity. Jesus has come to destroy our death and to offer us life, through his Death on the Cross and his glorious Resurrection. Thus he says before raising Lazarus: “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.”
Jesus asks Martha: “Do you believe this?” She professes her faith in him, the faith that is a condition for eternal life. We profess this faith in the Sacrament of Baptism and in our continuing effort to live our baptismal promises by keeping the commandments. In the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and the Holy Eucharist, Jesus already gives us here on earth a share in his life, a share in his life-giving Spirit foretold by Ezekiel, and a pledge of the eternal life which he has come to bring. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states in this regard: “United with Christ by Baptism, believers already truly participate in the heavenly life of the risen Christ, but this life remains ‘hidden with Christ in God’ …. Nourished with his body in the Eucharist, we already belong to the Body of Christ. When we rise on the last day we ‘also will appear with him in glory’” (CCC 1003).
Lent is a time of renewal given to us to rekindle in us the life of the Spirit. As Jesus said, “it is the Spirit that gives life; the flesh has nothing to offer” (Jn 6:63). The life-giving Spirit has been given to us through the Sacraments. In Lent we must grow more keenly aware of this. Hence, the aptness of St. Paul’s warning to us in today’s second reading: “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh; on the contrary, you are in the Spirit, if only the Spirit of God dwells in you.” Paul is calling us to grow in the grace of our Baptism, in the life of the Spirit given to us. It is a call for us to grow in our interior life. It is by doing this that we can enjoy the victory that Christ has obtained for us over Satan, sin, and death.
How deeply have I pondered God’s desire for me to share in his life and glory for all eternity in Heaven? In what ways am I allowing fear, sin, or worldly attachments to keep me in a death condition, exiled from the life that Christ offers? How can I use the remaining days of Lent to rekindle the life of the Spirit in me?
Excerpt from The Anawim Way, Volume 22, no. 3. More information about The Anawim Way may be found here.