Persistent In Faith And See The Glory of God

Weekly Missionary Reflection
5th Sunday of Lent, 26 March 2023
Eze. 37:12-14; Ps. 130:1-2,3-4b,4c-6,7-8; Rom. 8:8-11; John 11:1-45 (long) or John 11:3-7,17,20-27,33b-45 (short)

On the 5th Sunday of Lent, the Church invites us to contemplate the story of Jesus and Lazarus. I am always interested in this story of the Gospel. We can see that Martha, Mary, and Lazarus are best friends of Jesus. When Jesus learned about His friend, Lazarus, being ill, He would go back to see him. However, on His way, He was informed that Lazarus had died. We can imagine how sad Jesus was, especially when He saw Martha and Mary, the sisters of Lazarus, weep.

Lazarus had been lying in the tomb dead for four days. The Jews believed that the spirit of the dead would remain in the body for three days. They believed that the dead could rise again within those three days. Afterward, which was the fourth day, he would definitely be dead. By raising Lazarus on the fourth day, Jesus shows that the Son of Man has power over death and life. Jesus would like to reaffirm that He is truly the resurrection and life.

“I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die…” Do we believe in those words? We often have hardship in our lives that makes us lose faith in beautiful words. It looks like that our up-and-down life experience is saying, “Lord, where are You?” However, today’s Gospel invites us to contemplate that God is always present for us. And if we do believe, we will see the glory of God. As told in the prophecy of the Prophet Ezekiel in today’s first reading, “You shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and make you come up out of them, my people!”

During Lent, the Church constantly invites us to really contemplate the meaning of Jesus’ resurrection that we will celebrate on Easter. We shall not always live beautiful and smooth lives. There will be a lot of adversities that will tempt us in losing faith in the Lord. Nevertheless, again and again, the God we believe in will always show that He never abandons us.  Let’s pray that the Holy Spirit poured onto us through our baptism will strengthen our faith in Jesus and enable us to see God’s presence living in us. God bless.

(Br. Kornelius Glossanto, SX – Xaverian Missionary)

DAILY DEDICATED PRAYER

Lord, our Father, I present my today prayer, thought, word, work, joy, and sorrow in unity with Your Son, Jesus Christ, who always presents Himself in the Eucharist for the salvation of the world. May the Holy Spirit animating Jesus, also be my guidance and strength today so that I am ready to be the witness of Your love.

Together with St. Mary, Mother of Jesus, and the Church, in particular, I present my prayer for our Pope and apostle prayer of the Indonesian Church of this month:

For victims of abuse
We pray for those who have suffered harm from members of the Church; may they find within the Church herself a concrete response to their pain and suffering.

Churching by encountering
We pray that the member of the church rise and be active in ecclesiastical worship and eucharistic celebrations so that church life can be lived as a real encounter, presence, and social fraternity.

Amen