Fifth Sunday of Lent
Ez 37:12-14; Rom 8: 8-11; Jn 11:1-45 (year a)
‘I am going now to open your graves, my people, and lead you back to the soil of Israel. And I shall put my spirit in you, and you will live.” These words, spoken by the prophet Ezekiel, were addressed to Israel’s broken exiles. Their lives had ended with the destruction of their homeland. They had become as those living in the grave, whose bones had dried, whose hope was gone.
Lent summons us to the repentance that acknowledges that when we sin something dies within us. Love dies. We become strangers to God, to each other, and even to ourselves. Such is the death of sin. Sinful choices become the tomb that holds us captive.
