This passage from Ezekiel talks about rising from the graves. The Jewish people have been in exile in Babylon for nearly fifty years. Without their land they felt that were as good as dead. This is a message of hope that their torment will end. Their exile will be over and they will return to their land, the land promised to Abraham and their ancestors. They are to have a new lease on life.

The great fear we all have is the fear of death. There is a finality and power about death that no matter how we fight it we will not succeed. What Paul is telling us is that there is another life that is not vanquished by death, the life of the Spirit that Jesus has set loose upon those who believe in him. We live in the Sprit and physical death is rendered as inconsequential in the face of the life of Christ and the Spirit of God who is alive in us.

This is the final of the three great gospel stories from John that we read during Lent as we are welcoming new members into our Faith. We had the living water from the story of woman at the well. We witnessed the opening of the eyes and belief of the man born blind. Now we have the personal story of Jesus and His friends Lazarus, Mary and Martha. The ultimate power of God is seen in Jesus raising Lazarus from the tomb. He frees Lazarus from death as well as from the power of sin over any of us. Untie him and let him go free is what Jesus does for all of us who believe.

Recently at another parish when I was helping out hearing confessions and celebrating the sacrament of Reconciliation. A woman expressed her overwhelming fear of death. There are times that she was immobilized by the very thought of her own death and the death of those she loved. She wondered if that intense fear was indicative of how weak and insignificant her Faith was. Another person told me that her father had died two and a half years ago and she misses him more today than when he died. The grief was all consuming. As both of these women spoke there were tears of helplessness and sadness in their eyes.

All of us have a perspective on the reality of death. Some of us refuse to think about death as a way of avoiding facing its reality. Others in our society have accepted the reality of death but see it as the final curtain. There is nothing afterwards so we better make the most of what we have now no matter the cost of the consequences. Live now because there is nothing afterwards. Most of us have at one time or another wondered if we believe in a fairy tale of a life after death.

Others have integrated their Faith into their understanding and dealing with death. Most of us would like to have sign or have someone who had died come back to tell us what it is like after death but that has never happened. At least it has not happened to any of us.

All of us would like to live a long life as long as we have good health. Yet if there is deterioration of the body we can have some second thoughts about whether we want to merely exist but not really be alive.

One of the great insights of Paul that most of us have yet to get our minds around is that we are already living the fullness of life that will be ours after we pass through the doorway of death. Paul talks about living in Christ. If we live in Christ we live the life that He was raised up to at Easter. That is a life that will not end. When we are set free from the prison of our bodies we will realize in the fuller manner what that life is.

Those who have died live that fullness already but the life they know is also mine and yours at this very time. One of my favorite pieces of wisdom comes from ancient Celtic mysticism. It is believed that every experience or any relationship we have ever known or ever had when it is over it wanders the cosmos, the universe looking for a home where it can reside. These experiences and relationships find a home in our soul. When we think about it those whom we have loved and who have loved us are always in our hearts. They are never far from us. We don’t always think about them but they are there.

On those occasions when we remember them and talk about them our memories stir them from our souls and they are present with us. That is why many of us when we gather with family or friends and remember others and talk about those who no longer are with us we are comforted by our memories because remembering make them present with us. Every time we remember they are present.

They live in Christ and so do we live in the Spirit of Christ and that same Sprit that we share unites us in a way that we don’t always understand but nonetheless they are present. Like Lazarus they have been set free from the tomb of death. That freedom awaits all us. For Jesus and for us death is not a defeat but a victory that we share with the Lord.

Homily preached at the 9:30

Liturgy Sunday March 9, 2008

Reverend William D. Mannion