5th Sunday Lent A - Homily 2

Homily 2 - 2008

This is the last of Jesus’ signs that John lines up for us in his Gospel.  As a sign, it is not so much the story in itself that matters (it leaves lots of loose ends), but what it points to.  John uses it to redefine the meaning of death.

For most of Jesus’ contemporaries, death was the end.  If there was anything afterwards, it was not more than a dismal half-life of shadows.  Some believed in resurrection – but for them resurrection was more a vindication of the nation as a nation than a personal, individualised experience.  Martha probably believed that – but it was little consolation.

For many of our contemporaries and our friends, death is simply death, and that is all there is to it.  It’s the end.  They have their little fantasies, but they don’t really believe them.  Which means that love is only for this world; generosity, trust, the pursuit of integrity and wisdom are only for this world.

For me, that would knock the stuffing out of living.  It would make life and growth at best like a half-baked cake, at worst meaningless, and perhaps desperate.

Many people prefer to live as though death wasn’t.  They can’t bring themselves to talk about it, even to mention the word.  But, paradoxically, when they do that, it haunts them.  Unfortunately, in our present world, rather than come to terms with the inevitability of their own deaths and put them into a meaningful context, whole nations will kill others.  “Get them before they get us!” even if it calls for torture and the wholesale slaughter of innocent civilians.

Jesus has shown us that death, like birth, is just another transition.  Death is not final, any more than birth is final.  Values like love, truth, integrity and wisdom are transcendent; they “go beyond”.  They shape us.  They make us who we are.  They make us who we shall be.  Our strivings and our struggles to grow, to love, to trust and to be authentic are anything but meaningless.  They are the building blocks of life to the full.