Martha, Mary and Lazarus are close friends of Jesus. Lazarus is ill. Lazarus' sisters, Martha and Mary, are concerned about their brother. They send a message to tell Jesus: The man you love is sick. And Jesus remains where he is for two more days.

Martha and Mary must live through these days without the presence of their friend who has healed so many people. They must live through these days and experience Lazarus' death even though Jesus could so easily have prevented it.

Does that seem strange? Or does it seem a little bit familiar? Those whom we love are ill or in distress and for some reason we cannot be with them. We have to stay where we are for “ two more days ”. Our hearts are filled with love for them and pain at their pain but at that precise moment we have to remain where we are for “ two more days ”.

Or perhaps we are there like Martha and Mary beside the “brother” whom we love - the person as dear to us as a brother or sister - and whom we are in danger of losing. The Jesus friend we thought would be beside us helping is far away. We have to face the painful crisis without that support.

Jesus eventually arrives when Lazarus has been in the tomb for four days. Can we dare to believe, like Martha, that even now whatever Jesus asks God will grant us? Even when the situation that has been the cause of pain and concern has reached so far that it seems as if life and hope are totally gone can we dare to believe that our “Lazarus” can “rise again”?

Jesus' pain is real. He is in distress. His sighs come from his heart. He weeps as he walks to the tomb with the two sisters.

Can we not remember when our own pain too was real as we walked to the place where our “Lazarus” lay entombed? Perhaps “Lazarus” was the dream we had had for our life, the relationship we thought was meant to be, the way of life we had chosen, the plans we had for our children, the career we had longed for. Now it was dead, buried, stinking.

How did we experience the command to take away the stone? Who was the person who came and challenged us in the midst of our pain to dare to face the dead “Lazarus” and to believe that new life would come forth?

Perhaps it was a friend, a counsellor, a co-worker, a Prayer Group leader? Through them we were encouraged to allow the stone to be moved away and we began to understand that if we believed we would see the glory of God.

Perhaps we were like Lazarus. Something inside of us seemed dead, wrapped in cloths and buried. The things we did before we found ourselves unable to do. People wept for us but we were unable to weep for ourselves. We were beyond weeping.

Then that Jesus person came, the one who called us to come out of the tomb, the one who convinced us that we could live again. We came out still bound hands and feet and with a cloth around our face, but we were alive. We could move. Then we heard the command: Unbind them. Let them go free.

The Elect and their sponsors reflect today on the ways in which they have experienced being called into fullness of life. They rejoice in the new life and enter into the “unbinding” as they identify and cast aside the things in themselves that impede their movement as daughters and sons of God. We too, the rest of the community, need to look at ourselves. What are the things that still have our hands and feet bound? How is our face still covered?

Let us pray

Abba God!

Death, pain, distress dominate our news. Thank you for the people who like Martha and Mary wait in pain convinced that life can come even now, parents who continue to believe that their sons or daughters dead to them through addictions can be liberated.

Thank you for those leaders who distressed by violence and crime dare to call all the people of their communities together to discuss the situation and to try to find solutions. They are like Jesus going with Mary and Martha to the tomb of Lazarus and calling Lazarus to come out.

Thank you for those who respond to the call to restore life and hope to communities now torn apart by violence. They obey the command to move the stone away. As they plan strategies and begin to implement them, they begin to unbind Lazarus.

Thank you for all whose lives are committed to moving away the stone and unbinding Lazarus.

Forgive us the times we are content to remain weeping, commiserating with ourselves and with others who are in grief. We forget the words of Jesus that if we believe we will see God's glory. We are afraid to try to move the stone. It has been closed for so long. We, like Martha, are afraid of the ‘smell'. So we remain inactive, bound hands and feet ourselves.

Sometimes we are in grief over our own difficulties. We hold on to our grief. We are bound hands and feet. We are in the tomb.

Abba God! Help us to feel deep inside us the pain-filled, compassionate love of Jesus, your own love made flesh for us. Unbind us from our fears, our lethargy and our lack of faith. Breathe into us your life-giving Spirit empowering us as a people to come out of our tombs and to work together to restore life and true freedom to our world. Amen