Reading: 5th Sunday of Lent

The Resurrection and the Life 1
A Commentary by St Peter Chrysologus

On his return from the underworld, Lazarus comes forth from the tomb
like death confronting its conqueror, an image of the resurrection to come.
Before we can fathom the depths of meaning behind this miracle, we must
consider the way in which our Lord raised Lazarus to life. This action appears to
us as the greatest of all his signs; we see in it the supreme example of divine
power, the most marvelous of all his wonderful works.

Our Lord had raised up the daughter of Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue;
but although he restored life to the dead girl, he left the law of death still in force.
He also raised the widow’s only son. He halted the bier, forestalled the young
man’s burial, arrested the onset of physical decay; but the life he restored had not
completely fallen into the power of death. The case of Lazarus was unique. His
death and resurrection to life had nothing in common with the other two. Death
had already exerted its full power over him, so that in him the sign of the
resurrection shone out in all its fullness…

His sisters sent a message to Jesus saying, Lord, the friend whom you
love is sick. By these words they appeal to his affection, they lay claim to his
friendship, they call on his love, urging their familiar relationship with him to
persuade him to relieve their distress. But for Christ it was more important to
conquer death than to cure disease. He showed his love for his friend not by
healing him but by calling him back from the grave. Instead of a remedy for his
illness, he offered him the glory of rising from the dead.

We are next told that when Jesus heard that Lazarus was sick, he
remained where he was for two days. You see how he gives full scope to death.
He grants free reign to the grave; he allows corruption to set in. He prohibits
neither putrefaction nor stench from taking their normal course; he allows the
realms of darkness to seize his friend, drag him down to the underworld, and take
possession of him. He acts like this so that human hope may perish entirely and
human despair reach its lowest depths. The deed he is about to accomplish may
then clearly be seen to be the work of God, not of man.

He waited for Lazarus to die, staying in the same place until he could tell
his disciples that he was dead; then he announced his intention of going to him.
Lazarus is dead, he said, and I am glad. Was this a sign of his love for his
friend? Not so. Christ was glad because their sorrow over the death of Lazarus
was soon to be changed into joy at his restoration to life. I am glad for your
sake, he said. Why for their sake? Because the death and raising of Lazarus were
a perfect prefiguration of the death and resurrection of the Lord himself. What
the Lord was soon to achieve in himself had already been achieved in his servant.
This explains why he said to them: I am glad for your sake not to have been
there, because now you will believe. It was necessary that Lazarus should die, so
that the faith of the disciples might also rise with him from the dead.

1 Journey with the Fathers: Commentaries on the Sunday Gospels – Year A. Ed. Edith Barnecut, OSB.
New York: New City Press, 1992. 44-45.