Fifth Sunday of Lent

Today's Mass Readings

In today’s Gospel, we hear one of the most moving moments in the life of Jesus: the raising of Lazarus. By the time Jesus arrives in Bethany, Lazarus has already been in the tomb for four days. Martha says it plainly: “Lord, by now there will be a stench; he has been dead four days.” In other words, the process of decay had already begun. From a human perspective, the situation was completely beyond hope.

And yet this is precisely where Jesus chooses to act.

Standing before the tomb, Jesus does not shrink back from death, from decay, from the apparent finality of the grave. Instead, he cries out in a loud voice: “Lazarus, come out!” And the man who had been dead walks out of the tomb, wrapped in burial cloths, restored to life.

This miracle reveals something essential about Christ. Jesus is not merely someone who helps people who are already close to life. He brings life precisely where life seems impossible. Lazarus was not merely sick; he was dead. Not merely dead, but four days dead. Yet even there, Christ’s voice reaches him.

This is deeply consoling for us. Sometimes we look at our own lives and think that certain things are too far gone—habits that seem entrenched, wounds that feel permanent, sins that have taken root in our hearts. We may quietly wonder whether real change is possible.

But the Gospel tells us otherwise. There is no tomb so sealed that Christ cannot open it. There is no decay so advanced that His Word cannot restore life.

This is exactly what St. Paul reminds us in the second reading: “If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also.” The same divine power that called Lazarus out of the tomb is at work in us.

And so Lent is not a season of discouragement. It is a season of hope. It is the time when Christ stands before the tombs in our own lives and calls us by name. Where we see only failure, he sees the possibility of resurrection.

And if we allow his voice to reach us—if we allow him to roll away the stone—then even what seemed dead within us can begin to live again.

Reflection by Fr. Etienne Huard, OSB