March 22, 2026・5th Sunday of Lent (A)

Ezekiel 37.12-14・Ps.130.1+2, 5+6, 7a+8・Romans 8.8-11・John 11.3-7, 17, 20-27, 33b-45

Today is Fifth Sunday of Lent. We have in our Mass today the last of the three special prayer intention for Adult Christian Initiation. As we come closer to our Holy Week liturgy, we continue to pray together for and with the candidates for Baptism, and together find encouragements amidst realities in human living. At this point of our Lenten reflection on the Passion & Death of Jesus, we take the story of the Resurrection (of Jesus) as a sign of hope that things will get better in our small communities, respective homes, and in our world today as a whole. We continue to pray and hope and work for peace. The story of the raising of Lazarus from the death in our Gospel reading today intends to deepen our understanding that Jesus is “the Resurrection and the Life.”

Our reading from the book of the prophet Ezekiel talks about the intention/reason of God on raising His People from the grave. It is a story about a valley full of dead bones brought to life, that is, a parable about Israel, dead in sin and idolatry, being brought back to life in God – a life that recognizes the power of God. God`s intention is for them to know from the heart that He is their Lord.

Lazarus represents all those being brought back to life, all those who are given a new life in Christ through baptism. We may reflect about at least 3 things:

(1)  Baptism is entry into a new life.  

In my old life, I barely recognized Jesus as my Savior and Redeemer.

In my new life, there is a recognition of the Spirit of Christ.

(2)  We are called to daily conversion.

I am being brought back to life through repentance and our Lord`s forgiveness.

(3)  New life in Christ consists of participating in Jesus` salvific mission.

I reach-out and share with others my healing experiences, as well as my present struggles.

Our second reading talks about living in the Spirit of Christ. A certain part of our human nature may justify our very human and immediate responses and actions, and may insist that those are just normal and natural. However seeking for “this life`s” higher meaning and purpose leads us to a true life in the Spirit, a life that is participative in Jesus` salvific mission. The Spirit of Christ dwelling in us enables us to see what we have not seen so far. By just catering a self-serving expression of a certain destructive part of human nature, we may have been hurting ourselves and our neighbors for long now, thus, contributing to a lot of human sufferings and death.

Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin,

the spirit is alive because of righteousness.   cf. Rom. 8.10