As the narrative of Our Lord's Passion and death approaches in the Church's liturgical celebrations, we are presented today with one of the most beautiful pages in the entire Gospel. Jesus, foreshadowing and anticipating his death and resurrection in a few weeks' time, speaks now in bold and clear terms about both and teaches us that, just as death follows life in man's universal and daily experience, for those who believe in him the opposite is true: it is the true life that follows death, and not the other way round.
All of us are familiar with the Gospel story about Lazarus's death in Bethany and about Jesus bringing him back to life. The story, narrated in great detail by John the Evangelist, brings out, as clearly as one would imagine, not only the grief of Lazarus's sisters Martha and Mary, but also their faith in Jesus's love and supernatural power.
"If you had been here our brother would not have died!" And then Jesus said to Martha: "I am the Resurrection and the Life... He who believes in me, though he is dead, will live on, and for all eternity cannot die!"
How many times, when attending funerals, we have heard these words as the main theme of the celebrant's homily? "He who believes in me will never die!" Such is the power of true faith in Christ and in his saving power. For those who believe, the seed of their own resurrection is already in them. And this is so not only because of their faith, but also because of the real presence of the living Christ within them thanks to the Eucharist and to our sharing in the living Christ at Holy Communion, which in all truth becomes the seed of our own resurrection.
A rather startling remark is the one made by the Evangelist. We read that Jesus, when he arrived at Bethany and met Lazarus's sisters and heard their weeping, "was perturbed and deeply troubled". Strong language that expresses not only his love for his close friends in Bethany, but also his anger at death's power and sorrow over its ravages on human beings.
A little further down, after reaching the tomb in which Lazarus's dead body had been laid three days before, the Evangelist also tells us that "Jesus wept". How could it be otherwise, since Jesus, besides being divine, was also truly man, sharing with us everything that is proper to our nature?
Life and death. Two concepts, two realities, which are so near to each other and yet so opposite. To think about death as the beginning of life seems paradoxical. Not very much so for a Christian, though. What dies at death is only the bodily life, and in this we have everything in common with all living creatures. But supernatural life, usually referred to as sanctifying grace, is 'life' in the finest sense of the word. The gift of life which we enjoy here on earth would only be a gross deception, and only a counterfeit kind of life, if it were destined to come to an end at the moment of our bodily death.
Sandra Schneiders, a Scripture scholar, in her study of this Johannine text, writes: "Eternal life conquers death without abolishing it. We are not asked not to weep, when facing death, but only not to despair, for the One in whom we believe is our own resurrection, because he is our life." This should be our 'green light' whenever as human beings we must face difficult situations.
As somebody else has said, our life here on earth is only a training ground, which may lead to Calvary, but which guarantees our life after death, the fullness of life with him who said: "I am the Resurrection and the Life!"