Become Alive Again!

After composing the "super-homily" for Wednesday, I've sort of been "homily'd-out". But two songs (which you can see here and here) influenced my thoughts for this week.

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Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Lent
6 April 2014

        I know that I’ve asked this question before, but it bears repeating today: Are you dead or alive?

        My friends, we’re getting into the crux of the Lenten season, and we need to ask ourselves once again if we are Christians who are dead or alive.

        Of course, we’re talking more than our physical presence here. We are ultimately talking about our relationship with God. Here’s the litmus test: Ask yourself and answer for yourself the following questions:

·       When was the last time I spent time before the Blessed Sacrament in prayer?

·       Have I been consistent in attending Mass weekly?

·       Have I been receiving the Eucharist worthily?

·       When was the last time I made a worthy confession?

·       When was the last time I performed a sincere act of charity?

·       Have I truly forgiven those who have hurt me or those whom I love?

·       Have I allowed all my thoughts, words, and actions to be guided by the Sacred Heart of Jesus?

·       Have I sought the peace of God above everything else?

        These questions, and the many more like them, are necessary for pondering throughout the course of our lives. These are the questions which help us to realize whether we are spiritually alive or dead. And as we draw closer to the Paschal Triduum, the three days which encapsulate the very core of our Faith, we need to be honest on which side of the daisies we are at in our spiritual life.

        But here’s the great thing: If we’re alive, we need only to continue to seek the help of God and our neighbor daily in remaining faithful and faith-filled in our relationship to the Lord.

        But here’s the greater thing: If we’re dead, the Lord wants to raise us from our tombs! He wants us to be alive again!

        Through the prophet Ezekiel, our God promises to open our graves and to breathe His Spirit back into us so that, as Saint Paul teaches us in his letter to the Romans, we may truly belong to Christ Jesus. Jesus has the power to bring us back to life! He wants Lazarus to be an example for us – to call us out of our graves, to be set free from all that binds us in this world, so that we may live in the newness of life.

        We have to live and understand the spiritual reality so that we may ultimately live and understand the physical reality to come.

        When we profess in the Creed each week that we “look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come,” we establish the reality of our faith that is to be played out not only through the celebration of the Paschal Triduum, but in that physical sense at the end of time. And, yet, we profess that we believe that Christ can do this because we believe that He has already trampled death through the victory of life – and not by His own Resurrection, but through the example we have today with the raising of Lazarus, proving to the people of His day – and down to our day! – that as the Son of God – and God, Himself! – He has the power to give life to whomever He chooses.

        We pray that, in the end, He will raise us up on the last day.

        We pray that, in the here and now, Christ will rise up within ourselves, with His power and strength, pouring over us and within us to overflow His blessing and healing.

        We pray to live and understand the spiritual reality so that we may ultimately live and understand the physical reality to come.

        And so, my brothers and sisters, I pose the question to you once again: Are you dead or alive? And it’s really an unfair question because while we are alive in the Lord due to the grace of our Baptism, we are dead because of our sinfulness.

        We need to allow the Lord to call us out of our spiritual graves, to unbind us from our sinful and selfish ways, to renew us with His Spirit, and, from there, we need to walk in the newness of life! All this time, however, we need to see our spiritual reality becoming fulfilled physically through the promise of the Resurrection and eternal life at the end of time.

        Go to confession! Read the Scriptures! Read the Catechism! Pray the Rosary! Get to Mass more often! Learn to pray the Liturgy of the Hours! Read the wisdom of the saints! Pray a novena! Fast from something for something! Perform a sincere act of charity! Learn your Faith! Love your Faith! Live your Faith! Be set free from those things which bind you in this life so that you may anticipate the fullness of life to come!

        Become alive again!

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Enjoy the journey . . .