V.J.E.
This Lent, we will be sharing reflections by our Sisters on Ash Wednesday and each of the Sundays of Lent. Our hope is that the fruit of our Sisters’ prayer may bless you as we journey through Lent seeking greater intimacy with Jesus each of the forty days.
This reflection, on the readings for the Fifth Sunday of Lent, is written by Sr. Grace of Mary Kupiszewski, HMSS.
As we celebrate the Fifth Sunday of the Lenten Season, just before Holy Week, the Lord gives us a powerful message of hope and trust through Sacred Scripture. In the first reading from the prophet Ezekiel, the Lord says, “I have promised, and I will do it.” What a source of encouragement and joy for us! No matter where we are in our Lenten journey, the Lord is continually drawing us deeper into His Heart. Do we believe in His promise?
“I will open your graves and have you rise from them…I will put my spirit in you.” This is the Lord’s Promise to us. Throughout our lives, we continually live the Paschal Mystery of Jesus’ Suffering, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension in big extraordinary ways, and also in little everyday moments where we experience both suffering and joy. The Lord’s Promise of life and love remains the same. The Responsorial Psalm for this week echoes this promise, like a lullaby, and we are invited to repeat the truth that “with the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.” This is the Lord’s Promise to us. In the midst of suffering, of temptation, of darkness, we are invited to pray these words again and again, allowing them to be a balm for our hearts that are so much in need of the Lord’s mercy and redemption.
It can be difficult to trust and to wait for the Lord, like the sentinels who keep watch for the dawn. The story of Lazarus in the Gospel also simultaneously challenges and encourages us in waiting upon the Lord. We are told, “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that he [Lazarus] was ill, he [Jesus] remained for two days in the place where he was.” Jesus waited. He allowed suffering and the death of Lazarus to occur. But Jesus did not remain far off, He entered into the suffering and wept. In the same way, Jesus enters into our suffering. In our own trials, maybe with a family member who has been away from the Church for years, a physical or terminal illness, the death of a loved one, Jesus is with us and He weeps with us. Do we continue to trust and to place our hope in the Lord’s Promise like Mary and Martha did even if it seems that the Lord is not responding as quickly as we desire? May the words “I will open your graves and have you rise from them” and “Lazarus come out!” speak to the places in our own hearts that are in need of hope and God’s resurrection power.
“This illness is not to end in death, but is for the glory of God.” Jesus tells us that if we believe, we will see the glory of God. A tangible sign of the Paschal Mystery at work in our lives is the turning of winter into spring. We may have to wait through a long winter, but the snowdrop and crocus flowers will bloom and the glory of the Lord will be made manifest. For the next two weeks leading up to Jesus’ Passion, Death, and Resurrection, let us together put our trust in God’s timing and our hope in Him. “I have promised, and I will do it, says the Lord.”