The Raising of Lazarus
Lent 5, 17 March, 2002
Fr Neville Connell
Assistant Priest, St Peter's, Eastern Hill
I am one of the members of the Council for Christian Education in Schools
for our Archdiocese. At our Meeting the other day, a member of staff spoke to
us about the challenge facing CCES in schools, or really society in general
– the market-place as he put it. The Education Department has a number
of aims in operating the State School system; to develop the student's
potential, to promote appropriate behaviour and so on. Undoubtedly worthy.
Our man's point was, how do we as Christian Religious Education teachers,
talk about the fruits of the Spirit, the Spirit who gives life, in our
schools? How do we help the students to be children of love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control?
One Council member even told us that when approaching people to support
the local secondary college chaplaincy, people had trouble with the word
'chaplain'.
Of course, our world has values, but they are so often fleeting: care for
the environment, concern about sexual harrassment and abuse, immigration
matters, for instance. Smoking is a current secular sin, especially if you
smoke inside. Now one can litter the footpath instead! But where is the
undergirding moral framework for these values? How are these 'values',
so-called, formed? By individuals? If strong enough, yes. By groups,
sometimes and why? Concern, yes; fear, sometimes; selfishness, sometimes;
peer pressure, often enough; media manipulation too often.
Let us ponder the Wayne Carey affair, a very public case of adultery.
Public, not least, because I believe that he is the highest paid player in the
AFL. What was his particular sin as an adulterer? It seems that he sinned
against his wife, obviously, his vice-captain and best mate, his team, his club
and supporters. He threatened the cohesion and playing performance of the team.
But what if he had had an affair with a woman outside that community? Would
the team members have taken the action they did? We don't know, but there is
confusion here. Yet, adultery is adultery, a sin in the Church's eyes. Such
an attitude is counter-cultural to many today, as are so many other of the
Church's teachings. But it is no good saying that one's private life is one's
own business and no one else's – Wayne Carey has just discovered that
this is not so.
At the heart of our community, if we are to be a community which works, must
be personal integrity, with which we all struggle often. Just at this time,
Australia has become a country where personal integrity is under the spotlight
in a big way. But personal integrity is not just for the famous and important.
It is for all of us. A question arises as to how much integrity have media
proprietors and journalists.
St Paul uses the words 'spiritual' and 'unspiritual' in reflecting on these
things. "People who are interested only in unspiritual things can never be
pleasing to God. Your interests, however, are not in the unspiritual, but
in the spiritual since the Spirit of God has made his home in you. In fact,
unless you possessed the Spirit of Christ you would not belong to him."
(Romans 8:8-10) St Paul is nonetheless well aware of human frailty – he
had his own thorn in the flesh. Yet the gift of the Holy Spirit gives hope,
"Though your body may be dead it is because of sin, but if Christ is in you,
then your Spirit is life itself because you have been justified; and if the
Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you then he who
raised Jesus from the dead will give life to your own mortal bodies through
his Spirit living in you." (Romans 8:9-11).
This hope is built not on the fleeting values of today, soon to be replaced
by others more fashionable, but on life with Jesus, life in the Holy Spirit
the Spirit of Christ. The Holy Spirit who gave new life to the people of
Israel in exile as symbolised by the vision of the valley of the dry bones
in our First Reading, "The Lord says this: I am now going to open your graves;
I mean to raise you from your graves my people, and lead you back to the soil
of Israel." (Ezekiel 37:12). At the heart of the new life which the Spirit
brings is Jesus Christ from whose life, death and new life the Holy Spirit
flows. Jesus is the foundation for our lives as Christians for our values our
struggle to be people of integrity. Our faith is in a Person, not an idea,
nor even a doctrine.
In the story of the raising of Lazarus by Jesus, our Gospel Reading for
today, we have the turning point in St John's Gospel. "On receiving the
message, Jesus said 'This sickness will end not in death but in God's glory
and through it the Son of God will be glorified'".(John 11:4). But the glory
could only be seen through death, Jesus' death. St John sets the scene
carefully. Jesus waits several days before setting out for Bethany, he draws
from Martha her disappointment, yet her faith in resurrection. At the crucial
moment, "Jesus said in great distress with a sigh that came straight from the
heart, 'where have you put him?'" (John 11:33-34). This was a moment not just
of love for Lazarus, but was, for Jesus, a moment of faith and acceptance. He
would give life to Lazarus, but in so doing would lose his own life, because
immediately afterwards, St John tells us that the Jewish authorities decided
to plot in earnest for Jesus' death.
But in so dying, Jesus would give new life to all people, because he
overcame death and was raised to new life by the Father. This is the
new life which the Spirit breathes into us at Holy Baptism; which
renews us despite the many deaths we have to endure in life, when we
fall over and get up again, take two steps forward and one step back;
above all to see everyone in relation to Jesus, to be loved, honoured,
healed – because we are loved! St Irenaeus wrote "God's glory is in living
men, and full life for men is the vision of God" Let this vision of God
be our guide in all the passing values of our world.
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Views is a
publication of
St Peter's Eastern Hill, Melbourne Australia.
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