Homily for the 5th Sunday of Lent March 29th 2020

It’s often very hard for us to grasp that what we see in the mirror each day is merely a shell of flesh that we are wearing. Our true selves are in fact not flesh at all but are spirit. The true essence of man is a spiritual one, that the Lord imparted to us when He made each of us. Yet we tend to focus primarily on the physical form. In some respects that is understandable, as our senses are limited primarily to the physical, though we do have the ability if we cultivate it, to perceive more than that. It is a grace that comes from God to be able to connect more with that which is spirit, and it comes from time spent in fasting and prayer, and leaving ourselves completely open, in order to receive God’s message. If on the other hand we simply focus on the physical (such as a growling stomach during fasting), then that is all we will perceive and know. Our Lord calls us to much more than that though, He wants us to live in the spirit, He wants us to exist at that level, which is the level that will lead to eternal life. The body will die, that is one of life’s certainties, but if we exist in spirit, we will not die, but live. It’s kind of ironic when we think about it, we have this physical form for such a comically short time compared to an eternity in spirit, you would think we would be so much more prone to focusing on that. That is why, if we really take the time to get past our current sensory experience, and actually contemplate our spiritual life, we can make strides toward living at that level.

I always like hearing about Jesus’ friends Lazarus, Mary, and Martha. We often think of Martha as being too focused on her work to really appreciate who is with her, and yet, it is actually Martha who first acknowledges that Jesus is the Christ. She hasn’t missed the point after all. She believes that Jesus as God can do anything that He tells her. Yes, this is the same Martha who complained to the Lord about her sister Mary not helping her with the work around the house in order to provide hospitality to Jesus and His followers. Yet while she may have been trying to take care of the earthly needs of those around her, she did not ultimately miss the point of who Jesus is. So, when He tells her that Lazarus will live, she does not question it, she does assume initially that He is referring to eternal life, even though Jesus means He will raise Lazarus from the dead. Martha, ever the practical one, even goes so far as to point out when they come to the tomb, that there will be a stench because of the amount of time that Lazarus has been dead. Yet she still believes that Jesus can do anything. When our Lord arrives at the tomb, he makes it a point to let those around him hear his petition to the Father, so that they may better understand what is about to take place. When he frees Lazarus from deaths grip and has them release him from the burial bands, there is a resurrection to physical life, but there is also the lesson of what is possible through God, and the underpinnings for our need to focus on life in the spirit, for it is only through that, that we too can be raised again. If we believe and are willing to let Him take control of us, we can experience the fruits of life in the spirit. We don’t have to wait for our resurrection from death to experience life in the spirit. We can have that intimacy and understanding now. We can live in the spirit now, by taking the time to contemplate who we really are, and what we were made for. We can look beyond the daily needs of the body, and instead focus on Jesus’ words of life, and the promise of life everlasting that He earned for us by his death and resurrection. We can mentally and spiritually shift our focus away from this current state we are in and look beyond what we will ultimately be. When we do this, our situation now is put well into perspective, and we need fear nothing of this world. Jesus is our focus, we surrender ourselves to Him, we let Him guide us, and form us, to be who and what we are truly meant to be. With that submission and trust comes both peace and hope for what is to come. We need not be slaves to our fears and earthly concerns any longer. We have transcended that through Christ, who can do all things for those who believe.

Take Care, and God Bless each of you!

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