Fifth Sunday of Lent – As we ‘die’, we will live

By Msgr Michael de Verteuil

Chair of the Archdiocesan Liturgical Commission

This Sunday there is a choice of readings: Year A for those communities celebrating the Scrutinies in preparation for Baptism, and Year B or Year A for others.

Year A

First Reading (Ezek 37:12–14): This reading is chosen considering the Gospel which tells of the raising of Lazarus from the grave; the reading has the promise of God that He will “open your graves and raise you from your graves.” The words were spoken to the people in exile, promising them new life but also to us who will one day experience the gift of eternal life.

Second Reading (Rom 8:8–11): Once again, the theme of eternal life: “(H)e who raised Jesus from the dead will give life to your own mortal bodies through his Spirit living in you.” Therefore, we must be a people interested in spiritual things since we possess the Spirit of Christ and belong to Him and are created for eternal life. Through Baptism, we possess the Spirit.

Gospel (Jn 11:1–45): The Raising of Lazarus. Jesus proclaims, “I am the resurrection and the life …. whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” In keeping with the theme of Baptism which we celebrate at Easter, on the Third Sunday we read of the gift of living water which will quench the woman’s thirst for meaning of her life; on the Fourth the new vision which the water brought to the man born blind, and today of the eternal life that Baptism holds for us. On going to Lazarus, Jesus tells His disciples that He is going to wake Lazarus who is sleeping—for us who believe, death is like ‘a sleep we wake from to eternal life.’ We are not meant for the tomb.

Year B

First Reading (Jer 31:31–34): As in the First Sunday’s First Reading, this one is replete with references to the covenant. In this reading, God promises a new covenant (“Then I will be their God and they shall be my people”) of which Jesus speaks as He holds the cup at the Last Supper—“This cup is the new covenant in my blood which will be poured out for you.” Every time we receive Communion therefore, we reaffirm our commitment to the covenant. Through Baptism, to which we give our ‘yes’ at Easter, we become part of the covenanted people of God.

Second Reading (Heb 5:7–9): Christ is the source of eternal salvation. Born again of water and Spirit in Baptism and availing of the gift of the Eucharist (“Whoever eats my body and drinks my blood has eternal life”), we are on the way of salvation.

Gospel (Jn 12:20–30): For a rich harvest, a wheat grain must first fall on the ground and die. Jesus is the perfect example of this as through His death, new and eternal life is won for us. As He says, we too must follow this example—“Anyone who hates his life in this world will keep it for the eternal life.” (‘Hating’, as when Jesus speaks of hating mother and father, means having nothing in life more important than the Lord.) As we die to our self-centeredness and sin and spend our lives in love of God and others, we bear fruit in this life and win the gift of eternal life.