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March 28, 2023Ras Al Khaimah.
Bishop Paolo Martinelli presided over the Holy Mass at St. Anthony of Padua Church, Ras Al Khaimah during his pastoral visit.
Below is the full text of the homily delivered during the occasion of the Fifth Sunday of Lent.
It is a great joy to celebrate the Eucharist together during the pastoral visit because the Eucharistic celebration is the most important gesture that the Christian community can make. We can do many practical and beautiful things in life, but if the Eucharist is missing, our life remains incomplete, without an ultimate sense. The Eucharist makes us the Church, the body of Christ, and the people of God. If we want to know who we are, we must look towards the Eucharist. Furthermore, the Eucharist is the sacrament of Easter; in Holy Mass, we celebrate the death and resurrection of Christ.
We are now approaching Holy Easter. Today's Gospel speaks to us precisely about the centre of our faith: the resurrection of Lazarus in view of Jesus' Passover, the victory over death.
It is one of the most surprising miracles, as Saint Augustine says. The great father of the Church reminds us of three situations in the Gospel in which Jesus resurrects the dead: the young girl, daughter of a synagogue leader named Jairus, who was still at home on her bed; the young man, the only son of a widowed mother, being carried towards the tomb; and finally, Lazarus who had already been in the tomb for four days.
Augustine reads these three miracles of Jesus symbolically to indicate three types of death that occur due to sin: sinning in thought, sinning in our actions, and sinning when we give in to vice.
The girl who just died but is still in her house is an image of the sins we commit with evil thoughts; the evil is still within us in the mind and has not yet come out into action. The young and only son of a widowed mother is, sin by actions, that is the evil thoughts have come out and put into action. The death of Lazarus is a sign of vice that corrupts all of life and which gives off a bad smell, as the Gospel says.
Saint Augustine reminds us that Jesus is life and resurrection in all these cases. He frees us from the death of our bad thoughts, evil deeds, and vices that enslave us.
Furthermore, today's Gospel is powerful in describing the meaning of death and sickness and our need for salvation. The resurrection of Lazarus indeed introduces us to the paschal mystery, as a mystery of death and resurrection. As we know, Jesus spoke about the severe illness of his friend Lazarus, the brother of Martha and Mary, whom Jesus loved very much. He declares to the disciples that this death is to give glory to God.
This makes us reflect, above all, on God's glory. Saint Irenaeus says: the glory of God is the life in man; when a human person returns to life, after a period of sadness or after a bad experience, he gives glory to God since God does everything for our life and not for our death.
Upon hearing the news of Lazarus' death, Jesus goes to Bethany and faces the mystery of the death of his friend; he sees the tears of Martha and Mary, his friends, and, arriving in front of the tomb, he, too, is deeply moved. This emotion indicates an inner leap of upheaval in the heart of Jesus in the face of the mystery of death, which profoundly marks everyone's life.
In particular, affection and the desire for happiness are marked by this feeling. The fear of death wounds affections. Between man and woman, between parents and children, there is often the fear of getting lost. Sometimes we hear this expression: I am afraid to lose you!
But when the fear of death marks us, we start to mess up our affections. Instead of desiring happiness that seems impossible, we seek out distractions or superficial pleasures so as not to think about death.
With the resurrection of Lazarus, Jesus takes his death upon himself to give him life again. This miracle anticipates Easter. The last word in life is not death but resurrection.
Thus, we understand the Christian life as a life that looks to death in the certainty of the resurrection. This means that we have already been resurrected in Christ, as Saint Paul explained in the letter to the Romans.
Jesus' dialogue with the sisters of Lazarus reveals this fact: the resurrection concerns not only the future but also our life now. Jesus is the resurrection and the life, and whoever welcomes Jesus already lives a resurrected life. How different it is to experience affection, to experience work and rest in the perspective of the resurrection that conquers death! We are called to be children of the resurrection because Jesus took our fears upon himself and freed us from death.
Finally, I want to remind you that we have all been baptized and are united in Christ's death and resurrection. Now we have become new creatures. Here is the question we must ask ourselves today as a parish community: can we see the victory of Christ on our faces? Can we see in our words and works that we have already risen with Christ? Does our community communicate the joy of the resurrection to everyone? Are we aware we participate in Jesus' victory over evil and death? Saint Paul, in the letter to the Romans, spoke to us of the gift of the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead, which is also given to us. Let us ask the Lord to renew the gift of the Holy Spirit in us and to make us witnesses of the risen Jesus through our lives.