Sunday Gospel Reflection, April 2, 2017: Whoever believes in me, even though he die, will live...

 Whoever believes in me, even though he die, will live… 

Do you believe God can lift you to life? 

   When we’re broken, it’s sometimes hard to imagine that God can make us whole again.  Yet, as Psalm 130 reminds us, God’s sole focus is on forgiveness and redemption, on healing that which is broken – and our faith stories tell us that God is not interested in breaking anything further.  The prophet Ezekiel is chosen by God to call the people of Israel – languishing in exile – back to life as they once had known it:  I will open your graves and have you rise from them… I will put my spirit in you that you may live, God says. It is a promise to lift the people from the death-like state of exile through the bond of covenant, a bond that will tie them once again to their God, making them whole, restoring them to life.

   When Jesus sets Lazarus free from the bonds of death in John’s Gospel, he simultaneously urges all those who are watching to loose the knots in their own hearts that have consigned Lazarus to that death:  Untie him, and let him go, Jesus says  For they too must move with Jesus through death to life.  Likewise, it is Jesus’ death and resurrection that make it possible for him to lift us from the depths of sin and despair to life in the Spirit.  But we must, like Martha, profess our belief in Jesus’ power to do so:  everyone who lives and believes in me will never die, Jesus tells her. 

   Our lives are a constant journey with Jesus, moving through his Passion, from death to life, drawing ever closer to our own life in him.  If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, Paul tells the Roman community, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit dwelling in you.  Do we believe God is able to lift us to life?  If we are open to the power of the Spirit of God in our lives, we should have no doubts:  Jesus is the resurrection and the life – the God who lifts us from our brokenness, making us whole, lifting us to life in Christ.

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source:  Wordle

I can see You now (Hillsong)

  All these pieces 

Broken and scattered 

In mercy gathered 

Mended and whole 

Empty handed 

But not forsaken 

I’ve been set free 

I’ve been set free 

Amazing grace 

How sweet the sound 

That saved a wretch like me 

I once was lost 

But now I’m found 

Was blind but now I see  

Oh I can see You now 

Oh I can see the love in Your eyes 

Laying yourself down 

Raising up the broken to life 

You take our failure 

You take our weakness 

You set Your treasure 

In jars of clay 

So take this heart, Lord 

I’ll be Your vessel 

The world to see 

Your life in me 

Refrain

Oh I can see You now

Oh I can see the love in Your eyes

Laying yourself down

Raising up the broken to life

Refrain

Oh I can see You now

Oh I can see the love in Your eyes

Laying yourself down

Raising up the broken to life

To hear Broken Vessels performed by Hillsong, 
click on the video below:

Image source

Lyrics source

Video source

The Pool of Siloam (James Trower Bullock)

  Go, wash in the pool of Siloam. 

 --John ix.7  

 O Lord, my Saviour, deign to give 

   Thy saving help to me; 

That every moment spared to live, 

   I may come nearer Thee: 

Grant me thy truth and fadeless light 

To guide my steps from sin and night. 

                        

As he, to darkness born, was sent 

   To pure Siloam’s fount, 

May I be led obedient 

   To Zion’s holy mount; 

Led on by faith and duty there 

To bless thy mercy, love, and care. 

                        

To praise thy name that Thou hast shown 

   The Gospel light to me; 

In darkness born, a sinful one, 

   Too vile to look on Thee. 

To pray that in this world of strife, 

                         I may discern the way to life. 

                        

That way which Thou alone, O Lord! 

   Hast purchased with thy blood, 

For all who will fulfil thy word, 

   And live in purpose good. 

Oh!  grant that with such light I may 

Not blindly lose the path to perfect day. 

--James Trower Bullock, “The Pool of Siloam,”

Miscellaneous Poems, vol. 2

Image source:  Duccio, Jesus Opens the Eyes of a Man Born Blind (1308-1311)

For more about this painting, click here.

Then the angel left her (Fr. James Martin)

   The most important part of today’s Gospel (Lk 2:26-38) may be the phrase, Then the angel left her. 

   This is the part about faith.  Who knows if Mary had as profound a religious experience between her visit with the Angel Gabriel and Jesus’ first miracle at Cana?  After the angel leaves, Mary has to trust in God’s promises to her. 

   How similar this is to our own lives. We have a deep experience of God, and then must rely on it.  Often for many years. 

   Then the angel left her is where we live. 

--Fr. James Martin, Facebook, 

December 8, 2016.

Today (March 25) is the Feast of the Annunciation – 

let it be an occasion for you to think about faith,

and your trust in God's promise!

Image source:  Henry Ossawa Tanner, The Annunciation (1898), Philadelphia Museum of Art