{"id":4041,"date":"2023-04-12T04:22:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-12T04:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/legionofmary.org.au\/?p=4041"},"modified":"2023-04-12T04:24:30","modified_gmt":"2023-04-12T04:24:30","slug":"allocutio-march-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/legionofmary.org.au\/index.php\/2023\/04\/12\/allocutio-march-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Allocutio March 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

5th<\/sup> Sunday of Lent \u2013 Year A \u2013 26\/03\/2023<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

By Fr. B Saliba <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is so much to do with life and death in our scriptures this weekend.  Spiritual life and death, physical life and death.  To begin, the prophet Ezekiel speaks of the opening of graves and the raising of the dead to new life through the spirit that will be put in them from God.  We must never underestimate the power of the Spirit in our lives.  It is what gives life to our souls, and therefore it is what our souls long for as the psalm speaks of today \u2013 my soul is waiting for the Lord \u2013 I count on his word.  My soul is longing for the Lord like watchman count on daybreak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is why in Romans it is said\nthat people who are interested only in unspiritual things can never be pleasing\nto God.  Those who deny the spirit, who deny\nGod and his goodness are ultimately rejecting a relationship with Him and\ntherefore do not have life in them. \nThose who embrace God, welcome the spirit that is the life-giving force\nof the soul, allow God to make His home in them.  People like this, even though they sin and\ncan often times be cut off from a relationship with God are quick to reconcile\nto God through the sacrament of confession. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This can only be made possible\nthrough the lifesaving action of Jesus\u2019 passion, death and resurrection.  The saving power of God is best seen in our\nGospel today.  This is quite possibly the\ngreatest of Jesus\u2019 miracles \u2013 the raising of Lazarus from the dead.  It is as though this miracle is the straw\nthat breaks the camel\u2019s back for the Jews. \nIt is the one thing that Jesus does that provokes the Jewish opposition\nto him that will lead to his death. \nHealing a deaf or blind person, multiplying loaves and fishes, walking\non water etc were bearable \u2013 but to raise a person from the dead?  This had even more people start to follow him\nand look at him as more than just a prophet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you want to be even more\nprepared for the climax of this Lent \u2013 this Gospel is the one that will prepare\nus for Holy Week.  So the obvious\nquestion becomes, why on earth did Jesus wait 2 days before tending to\nLazarus.  Martha herself says \u2018Lord if\nyou had been here, my brother would not have died.\u2019  People believed in Jesus ability to heal, but\nto raise someone on the fourth day \u2013 four days meant Lazarus was well and\ntruly dead<\/em> \u2013 would be something that truly solidifies the apostles belief \u2013\nthe belief of the people.  The people who\nwere not impressed were the high priests \u2013 the pharisees.  Tensions were specifically high around this\ntime of Passover because Jews were always anticipating the coming of the messiah\naround Passover time.  The Messiah was\nthere and they didn\u2019t want to admit it \u2013 they didn\u2019t want the people to believe\nit and so this one man, Jesus Christ needed to be crucified so they could\ncontinue to control the people and their religious customs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was not news to Jesus \u2013 for\nthis is why he came \u2013 by his action of raising Lazarus from the dead, it would\nmean this event would be the beginning of the end.  The persecution was a means to his\ncrucifixion and death so that he could reconcile all of us to the Father in\nheaven.  The person Jesus raises from the\ndead is his good friend Lazarus \u2013 not a stranger, not an enemy, but a man he\nloves.  Jesus, knowing he was going to\nthe cross, raises Lazarus from the dead and in doing so will eventually lay his\nlife down for Lazarus at the hands of the Jews. \nIn the scriptures Jesus says \u2013 greater love has no man than this, that a\nman lay down his life for his friends. \nBy giving Lazarus life, Jesus is going to be killed \u2013 he is living out\nthis teaching \u2013 there is no greater love than this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Jesus\u2019 passion death and\nresurrection, we as the children of God become Justified.  This is sometimes where our protestant\nbrothers and sisters get confused.  Some\nof us Catholics get confused and think that because Jesus died for us we are\nautomatically saved should we believe in him. \nIt is possible to lose this salvation \u2013 this is why we as Catholics do\nnot use the language \u201csaved\u201d \u2013 rather we say we have been \u201cjustified\u201d as we hear\nit in Romans today \u2013 which means that the relationship with God has been made\nright again \u2013 Jesus has now made it possible for us to share in God\u2019s love for\neternity in heaven – but we must always remember it is possible to lose\nthis.  The way we can get it back is by\ngoing to confession \u2013 to confess your sins, do penance and to try and not sin\nagain.  This sacrament of God\u2019s great\nmercy gives us an opportunity to say sorry \u2013 it is not possible to just say\nsorry to God on your own \u2013 if this is your mentality you are not thinking with\nthe Church and what she teaches \u2013 Jesus institutes the sacrament of\nreconciliation for us to use.  To not use\nit is to deny you are a sinner or to say I don\u2019t believe in the sacrament.  More on that in the coming months through our\nAdult faith formation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We must remember my brothers and\nsisters that as we approach this Holy Week \u2013 it is the Lord we must seek \u2013 not\nour own strength, or reliance on another person.  We must seek out the Lord because it is\nthrough Him that we find forgiveness \u2013 and once we have found it and have been\nhealed \u2013 it is the Spirit that will live in us, it is the spirit that will\nshine through us and help us and others believe Jesus when he says \u2013 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE\nLIFE; HE WHO BELIEVES IN ME, THOUGH HE DIE, YET SHALL HE LIVE; AND WHOEVER\nLIVES AND BELIEVES IN ME SHALL NEVER DIE.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

5th Sunday of Lent \u2013 Year A \u2013 26\/03\/2023 By Fr. B Saliba There is so much to do with life and death in our scriptures this weekend.  Spiritual life… <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

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