One can’t get much more ‘laid low’ than a pile of dry bones scattered about in the desert. Yet, this unpromising state of affairs is just what the divine Physician needs to work with in order to restore a situation of hopelessness to one of resurrection.
In the first Mass reading of Sunday V of Lent, we have just three verses lifted from the much longer and dramatic account of Ezekiel prophesying over ‘vast quantities’ of dry bones. He is to breathe on them with the ‘enlivening Spirit of the Lord’ (Fr Henry Wansbrough). The whole of Ezk. 37 needs to be read, in order to set these few verses in context. Can these bones live? asks the Lord. They can when his Spirit breathes life into them.
The sound of thousands of bones joining together must have been deafening; the Lord did not need to use internal fixation by screws and plates thus limiting movement. The sinews and flesh were brand new, with the promise of new life and hope not only in this world but in the next.
Unbind him, let him go free. These words from the gospel reading (John 11:1-45) are timeless, words that can resonate with so many, like Lazarus, who are restricted and bound by any form of addiction, overwhelming loss and grief, seemingly impossible situations and the wish to be free of them. Lazarus was well and truly dead. Hopeless? Not so. Foretelling our own resurrection, the Lord, who wept for his friend, unbound him and called to him, as He calls to us, ‘Veni foras’, COME FORTH! These words are so powerfully expressed in the Latin Communion chant for this day. See p124 in the Graduale Romanum, ‘Videns Dominus’. The Lord cries out to Lazarus by the tomb, the music rising to a dramatic climax:
‘Lazare – VENI FORAS’
It is worth looking at an abstract expressionist painting by Salvador Dali, ‘Lazare, Veni Foras’. Like all abstract art, and indeed scripture, the more they are studied, the more they reveal their treasures. Dali’s masterful use of darkness and light, and subtle hues of the grave clothes, with what looks like hands emerging from the cloth, suggest an atmosphere of suspense.
The Holy Spirit, like a golden thread, runs through the second reading (Rom 8:8-11) as well. Christ enlivens our own spirit because His life is within us and it was the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead.
In the special preface for this Sunday, we hear, ‘In His love for us all, Christ Jesus gives us the sacraments to lift us up to everlasting life’, and this takes us to the heart of the Christian message.
This Sunday also celebrates the 3rd scrutiny for those preparing for the Baptism of the catechumens at the Easter Vigil when they are admitted to the Sacraments of Christian Initiation. When this is celebrated there is also a commemoration of the godparents in the Eucharistic prayer when their names are read out.
The Collect for the 3rd scrutiny ties in beautifully with the Mass readings for this Sunday:
‘Grant O Lord, to these chosen ones that instructed in the holy mysteries, that they may receive new life at the font of Baptism and be numbered among the members of your Church.’
Adolf Adam in The Liturgical Year, tells us that Jesus presents himself as ‘the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.
This is, in all truth, a new and even revolutionary message, not only for candidates for Baptism, but for all human beings destined as they are to die’.
As we continue our Lenten journey, accompanying the Lord on his way to Jerusalem, let us ponder on the chants we sing on this 5th Sunday of Lent, the words of the Lord, I have longed to eat this Passover with you before I suffer and The Lord is at my side, I do not fear, what can man do against me?
Sr Julian