Into New Life

 

                                                    The Fifth Sunday in Lent 2026 

March 22, 2026

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Ezekiel 37:12-14; Psalm 130; Romans 8:8-11; John 11:1-45

 

The story of Lazarus is compelling because it is one of the final scenes before Holy Week and it gives us hope in the Resurrection. It teaches us how to live now especially when we are faced with the death of a loved one. Two of the most emotional lines are found in the Gospel: “Jesus wept,” and “See how much he loved him.” It tells us something about the heart of God who finds sorrow in our misfortune.

 

The Ezekiel passage shows us the God opens the graves of the Israelites and calls them to rise from them. Jesus acts in the place of God when he opens the tomb of his friend, Lazarus, who can now rise to new life. Jesus changes around the Jewish belief about a future resurrection when he says, “I am the resurrection and the life.” He makes sure that Martha knows that the resurrection is not only a future belief or an event that happens to Jesus after the Crucifixion. He tells her that resurrection is about a relationship with Christ now. He tells her that eternal life begins when we believe, not only when we die. 

 

What does this mean for us. Belief in Jesus means that we can live differently now because Christ has our back. We can leave fears behind because fear is not faith, and faith calls us to leave our tombs and experience the fullness of life. Martha asks Jesus, “Why didn’t you come sooner?” and he tells us what matters is not time, but belief. The only time that matters is now, and belief in Jeus will take care of all manner of things.

 

While Jesus raises Lazarus to life, and by implication, Jesus raised people to new life, he asks the community to help remove the bandages. He says, “Untie him.” There are so many layers of relationships that bind and limit people, and Jesus wants the community to set Lazarus free, to see us free of the restrictions that community places upon us. To do this, we must forgive. We encourage others and speak life-giving and life-sustaining words. We heal fractured relationships and we reconcile our suffering. What does Jesus do: He infuses his love into death. He weeps for Lazarus and loves him back to life. Jesus does the same for us. Therefore, it is important for us to put love into places where lost has been lost or where love is absent. It is the power of this love that heals, and it is given to us because we have eternal life. 

The question for us is, “Who needs my love to be freed from the shackles of life? How can my love give someone new life?” We, as community, help others live freely. What fear do I carry with me that prevents me from living to my full potential? Whose love do I need to liberate me from what holds me back? Jesus wants to give us newness of life, a renewed sense of energy and engagement, a meaningful purpose. We belong to him because his love has the power over death. His love knows no boundaries. His love is what transforms our world into a liberating breath of life. Hear Jesus speaks the words, “Untie Lazarus. Untie your loved one. Untie you.” Then our work begins. We then let each other go free. 

 

 

March 22, 2026: Fifth Sunday of Lent

Mary McGlone: The Fifth Sunday of Lent, The raising of Lazarus . . .

https://www.ncronline.org/spirituality/march-22-2026-fifth-sunday-lent?utm_source=NCR+List&utm_campaign=6121d834f3-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2026_03_18_05_46&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_6981ecb02e-6121d834f3-230180185

Lent . . .giving up or giving over?

 

 

 

 

Poem: "For Lent" by Monica Lavia

What are you giving up for Lent? Adam asked of Eve.
Well, Eve said. I am thinking I should give up apples.
And what about you, husband of mine?
Adam replied, I think I am going to give up taking advice from you.

What are you giving up for Lent?
Abel asked his brother Cain?
Cain replied, I am going to try to give up my anger
Lest in a weak moment, I injure someone I love.

What are you giving up for Lent?
Jacob asked his twin, Esau.
Apparently my birthright, little brother of mine.

What are you giving up for Lent?
Moses asked of Aaron?
I am going to give up worshiping false gods
Especially the golden calf variety.
What about you? Aaron asked Moses in return.
I am giving up my need to see the promised land.

What are you giving up for Lent?
Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar asked Job.
I am giving up trying to understand the mind of God.

What are you giving up for Lent? I asked of Mary.
She whispered her response so softly
I had to move in close to her to hear her hushed reply:
My only Son

Patrick ~ Man of Courage, Man of Myth!

 

St. Patrick

 

May your troubles be less
And your blessings be more
And nothing but happiness
Come though your door

The Blessing of Light, Rain and Earth

May the blessing of Light be on you
light without and light within.

May the blessed sunlight shine on you
And warm your heart till it glows
Like a great peat fire, so that the stranger
may come and warm himself at it
and also a friend.

And may the light shine out of the two eyes of you
Like a candle set in the windows of a house
Bidding the wanderer to come in out of the storm.
And may the blessing of the Rain be upon you, the soft sweet rain.
May it fall upon your spirit so that all the little flowers may spring up
And shed their sweetness on the air
And may the blessing of the Great Rains be on you
May they beat upon your spirit and wash it fair and clean
And leave there many a shining pool where the blue of heaven shines
And sometimes a star.

And may the blessing of the Earth be upon you, the great round earth
May you ever have a kindly greeting for them you pass
As you're going along the roads
May the earth be soft under you when you rest upon it
Tire at the end of the day
And may it rest easy over you
When at the last you lay out under it
May it rest so lightly over you
That your soul may be out from under it quickly
And up, and off, and on its way to God.

(Author Unknown)

God of Sunset . . .

May the blessing of the Sunset make your heart burn with gratitude to God for the graces of the waning day. May the beauty of the brilliant sky be a reflection of God's infinite love and mercy. As the sun slowly sinks below the horizon, may it put to rest whatever fears or doubts you have and gently cradle you in the loving arms of God. May the blessing of the God of Sunset be upon you. 

--Maxine Shonk, OP

A new perspective on Life: The Fourth Sunday in Lent 2026

  

March 15, 2026

www.johnpredmoresj.com | predmore.blogspot.com

 

Exodus 17:3-7; Psalm 95; Romans 5:1-8; John 4:5-42

 

These readings show us that God views the world differently the way humans do, and we are invited to see as God sees. We first glimpse this when we hear that story of the call of David who was deemed insignificant by his family. The prophet Samuel scrutinized the older brothers and determined that the youngest, the one almost forgotten, was the one who would lead them forward. The Gospel then shows us the story of the blind man who comes to faith and achieves greater consciousness. 

 

The coming to sight story begins with real human experience. Jesus takes dirt from the earth, spits into it and makes clay, reminiscent of the Creation story in Genesis. Jesus re-enacts that he is aware of God’s original plan in Eden and he recreates this man with fuller sight. He then smears it onto the man’s eyes and instructs him to wash in the pool of Siloam. The man continues his evolving process of coming to full sight.

 

The human reactions to his evolution produce great ambivalence. Some neighbors disbelieve, his parents are cautious to speak, and some Pharisees concluded that the one who healed him could not come from God. It is quite rich that so many people stayed in the conversation with the man. At first, it was an interrogation, but that it developed into an authentic dialogue about wanting to understand. The people move from condemnation to inquiry to possible conversion.

 

Think of the conversations that you have had at home when you have formed your children in the faith and they no longer attend worship services. Or that someone in the family that staunchly adheres to one political party comes to see the world through the lens of a different party. How does this happen that people brought up with the same formation come to see differently. What a mystery this is! It causes bewilderment. We wonder what we did wrong. How did this happen? How do people see things so differently? Sometimes, we wonder, “How can someone I love so much be so blind to what is happening in the world? How can they hold such beliefs?” We have the same conversations as we heard in the Gospel passage. 

 

What is this Gospel trying to teach us? We have responsibility for our own formation. We have to go down to the pool of Siloam to wash our eyes and gain sight. It teaches us that faith is a process. It is something that grows with trust, through questioning, through doubt, and it is often experienced alone. It can be a cause of tension that leads to separation from some and acceptance by others. We search for reasons. We want answers. Jesus assures us that the questions are important for our full coming to faith because he asks: Do you believe in the Son of Man? We respond: Show me who God is, and I will believe. When Jesus reveals who he is we can respond in full worship.

 

Jesus wants us to see that he proposes a radically new perspective on life, and he gives us an alternative perception to the consciousness of the dominant culture around us. He invites us into a more inclusive way of things and into a metanoia, a change of heart, in which we can see God’s work in action all around us. He sees an evolutionary world created by love and for loving. God stands ahead of us in time beckoning us forward. God works in our lives by inviting us to take our next steps in growth and to accept the loving, all-embracing consciousness of God. God’s love unites all humanity, and we are united to Christ by entering into communion with all people. We continue to evolve as your sight becomes clearer. At the end of the day, all we can do is to stand tall and worship. 

 

Timing is everything . . .

 

 

O God of all seasons and senses, grant us the sense of your timing             
to submit gracefully and rejoice quietly in the turn of the seasons.

In this season of short days and long nights,
of grey and white and cold,
teach us the lessons of endings;
children growing, friends leaving, loved ones dying,
grieving over,
grudges over,
blaming over,
excuses over.

O God, grant us a sense of your timing.
In this season of short days and long nights,
of grey and white and cold,
teach us the lessons of beginnings;
that such waitings and endings may be the starting place,
a planting of seeds which bring to birth what is ready to be born—
something right and just and different,
a new song, a deeper relationship, a fuller love—
in the fullness of your time.

O God, grant us the sense of your timing.

Taken from Guerrillas of Grace by Ted Loder