5th Sunday in Lent
Readings of the day (Year A readings, Third Scrutiny): Ezekiel 37:12-14; Psalm 130:1-2, 3-4, 5-6. 7-8; Romans 8:8-11; John 11:1-45
What are some of Catholics’ most
frequently-asked questions about our faith? When I was newly-ordained last May,
I visited the high school from which I graduated, Archbishop Jordan Catholic
High School in Sherwood Park, Alberta, just outside of Edmonton, Canada. Each
student I spoke with was to write down two questions to ask the new priest. At
first, I was somewhat surprised at the most frequently asked question to me of
Archbishop Jordan students.
What was the most frequently-asked
question, both overall and in each grade and classroom? “Father, have you ever
done an exorcism”? Fortunately, I had the presence of mind whenever I was asked
this question to respond, “Yes, every time I do a baptism.”
Our Catholic Rite of Baptism for
Children includes a beautiful prayer of exorcism over the children to be
baptized, after which the children may be anointed with blessed oil called “Oil
of Salvation” or “Oil of Catechumens.” The prayer of exorcism, just before the
baptism itself, is this: “Almighty and ever-living God, you sent your only Son into the world to cast
out the power of Satan, spirit of evil, to
rescue us from the kingdom of darkness, and bring us into the splendor of your
kingdom of light. We pray for this child:
Set him (her) free
from original sin, make him (her)
a temple of your glory, and send your Holy Spirit to dwell with him (her). We ask this through Christ
our Lord. Amen.”
When I was
asked by the high school students, “Father, have you ever done an exorcism,”
were the students thinking that I might have called down thunder and lightning
from heaven once or twice? Or maybe like the priest in the movie, “The
Exorcist,” I might have called out a demon by crying out, “The power of Christ
compels you”! I have not done or witnessed any of this, mainly because the fire
department would not be impressed if I did this in any of our parish’s
churches! And God does not usually work this way, either, I do not think. Even
when working amazing signs like exorcisms or raising the dead, God usually
works gently, humbly, even silently.
And even
though God can work these great signs on his own, does God not often work through
us; ask us to co-operate with God in the greatest of signs? Is it not amazing
that God would entrust himself to us in this way? And yet our readings today
speak to us of this very desire of God to work with us; to be in relationship
with us; a relationship that brings us life and that enables us to co-operate
with God in God’s mighty works.
Our God,
Ezekiel says in our first reading, has placed his “spirit in” us that we “may
live.” “Christ is in you,” St. Paul says to the Romans and to us. “If the Spirit of
the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you,” God “will give life to
your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit dwelling in you.”
“I am the resurrection and the life,”
Jesus says to Martha in our Gospel reading today before raising his friend and
Martha’s and Mary’s brother Lazarus from the dead. Yes, Jesus is “the
resurrection and the life” but, even in this mightiest sign of Jesus in John’s
Gospel, Jesus asks us to co-operate with him. Jesus asks his disciples to work
with him in faith: It is so that they believe that he asks them to go with him
to Lazarus’ tomb. Jesus asks Martha and Mary to believe in God; to believe in
him: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, even if he
dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this… Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God”? And just after calling Lazarus forth from the
tomb Jesus again asks us to take on a central role in his greatest work yet,
raising a person from the dead: “Untie him and let him go.”
With this let me return to
frequently-asked questions. Within the last week or so, what is the most
frequent question I have been asked here at St. Kateri? At least three times
this week I have been asked this (not by anybody in our RCIA and RCIC who are
preparing to be welcomed fully into our Church, interestingly): “Father, what
is a scrutiny”? Apparently, our St. Kateri parishioners are less interested in
exorcisms than are Canadian high school students…
So what is a scrutiny? For the last
three weekends, at one of our parish’s Sunday Masses each week, we have prayed
in a special way for our candidates and elect for Christian initiation as
adults and older children. We have prayed for God to strengthen their faith and
ours. As one faith community we have welcomed them and one another “to examine our spiritual lives and renew our faithfulness
to the Lord.”
This careful examination of “our
spiritual lives” is what our scrutinies are about. We have journeyed with our
candidates and elect through three of these examinations of faith. First our
candidates and elect received the Creed and we prayed it with them: the First
Scrutiny. That week, two Sundays ago, we heard of the encounter between Jesus and
the Samaritan woman at the well in John’s Gospel. At the end of this encounter,
the Samaritan woman proclaims to her entire village the truth that Jesus is
“the Savior of the world.” And we proclaim this truth with her; with our
candidates and elect now, in the Creed: “I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only begotten Son of God.”
A week later, our faith and that of
those to join us in the Easter sacraments was examined; challenged again
through hearing of Jesus’ healing of the man born blind from John’s Gospel: The
Second Scrutiny. Do we believe that this man, Jesus, is God the Creator himself
in human flesh, using the matter of creation to re-create us; to transform us;
to heal us when we are in need of healing, physically and spiritually?
And today with our candidates and elect
we experience the Third Scrutiny. Once more we examine “our spiritual lives” as
we draw ever nearer to Holy Week. Is our faith strong enough to accept and to
rejoice in being co-operators with God in God’s greatest of signs: Our
salvation?
Jesus’ raising of Lazarus in John points
directly to Jesus’ own resurrection from the dead. But it also points to our
own resurrection with and in Christ; our own salvation through this mystery.
Are we willing to accept our mission to work with God in this work of our own
salvation? “Untie him and let him go.” How willing are we to untie and let go
of anything that keeps us from fullness of relationship with one another and
with God? How willing are we to let go of any sin; any guilt; any lack of
forgiveness that keeps us from recognizing and acting fully by the mercy of
God? This may be the greatest challenge yet to our faith; the greatest of the
three scrutinies.
How deeply has this
journey of Lent led us to acknowledge the mercy of our God who wills to save
us; to acknowledge our co-operation in God’s saving mission in Christ for us?
We may want to add this to our list of frequently-asked questions…
