March 22, 2026 • 20 mins
THE RESURRECTION OF LAZARUS IS GOD'S PROMISE TO US....PROVEN BY JESUS
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SPEAKER_01 (00:59):
The Lord be with you.
A reading from the Holy Gospelaccording to John.
The sisters of Lazarus sent wordto Jesus saying, Master, the one
(01:25):
you love is ill.
When Jesus heard this, he said,This illness is not to end in
death, but it is for the gloryof God, that the Son of God may
be glorified through it.
Now Jesus loved Martha and hersister and Lazarus.
(01:47):
So when he heard that he wasill, he remained for two more
days in the place where he was.
Then after this he said to hisdisciples, let us go back to
Judea.
When Jesus arrived, he foundthat Lazarus had already been in
the tomb for four days.
(02:08):
When Martha heard that Jesus wascoming, she went out to meet
him.
But Mary sat at home.
Martha said, Lord, if you hadbeen here, my brother would not
have died.
But even now I know thatwhatever you ask of God, God
will give you.
Jesus said, Your brother willrise.
(02:31):
Martha said, I know he will risein the resurrection on the last
day, Jesus told her, I am theresurrection and the life.
Whoever believes in me, even ifhe dies, will live, and whoever
lives and believes in me willnever die.
(02:55):
Do you believe?
She said to Jesus, Yes, I havecome to believe that you are the
Christ, the Son of God, the onewho is coming into the world.
He became perturbed and deeplytroubled, and said, Where have
you laid him?
(03:16):
She said to him, Sir, come andsee.
And Jesus wept.
So the Jews said, See how heloved him?
But some said, Could not the onewho opened the eyes of the blind
man have done something so thatthis man would not have died?
(03:38):
So Jesus, perturbed again, cameto the tomb.
It was a cave, and a stone layacross it.
Jesus said, Take away the stone.
Martha said, the dead man'ssister to Jesus, Lord, by now
there'll be a stench.
He's been dead for four days.
(03:59):
Jesus said, Did I not tell youthat if you believe you will see
the glory of God?
So they took away the stone, andJesus raised his eyes to heaven
and said, Father, I thank youfor hearing me.
I know that you always hear me,but because of the crowd here I
(04:21):
have said this, that they maybelieve that you sent me.
And when he said this, he saidin a loud voice, Lazarus, come
out.
The dead man came out, tied handand foot with burial bands.
His face was wrapped in a cloth.
(04:43):
So Jesus said to the crowds,Untie him and let him go.
Now many of the Jews who hadcome to Mary and seen what he
had done now began to believe inhim.
The gospel of the Lord JesusChrist.
(05:14):
This homily, this gospel, thesereadings are a challenge to all
of us.
All of us have intentions on thealtar or in our hearts, or
people we pray for and arepraying for, some of whom are
(05:35):
ill, some of whom have died.
And we come here with our ownagenda, our own prayer list, and
we hear this Jesus raisingLazarus from the dead.
Might challenge us, I don'tknow.
(05:57):
Might disappoint us, I don'tknow.
But we're not looking at us,we're looking at Jesus today.
We're not looking at how wepray, but the answer to our
prayers, Jesus.
We were prepared for thisreading by the first two
readings.
(06:18):
One, that beautiful, mysticalreading from Ezekiel.
People of Israel were returninghome from Babylon after
generations of persecution andabandonment, and they had no
faith, they had no hope.
(06:42):
And the prophet Ezekiel,inspired by God, says, Oh my
people, I will open your gravesand bring you back to the land
of Israel, that you may know Iam your God.
Centuries before Jesus did this,Ezekiel is inspired by God to
(07:10):
tell us that God will open ourgraves.
Now all of us have ancestors whoare engraves in tombs or in
urns, their mortal remains.
And we don't expect theresurrection of those people,
(07:33):
but we do expect it at one pointbecause God said it will happen.
I will open your graves andyou'll come back.
From Ezekiel to Jesus, it neverhappened until Jesus comes on
the scene.
We're also inspired today tounderstand these special
(07:55):
readings from Paul's letter tothe Romans because he's
explaining what our conditionson earth are like.
Traditionally, we say we aremade body and soul in the image
of God.
But Paul's reminding us ifyou're in the flesh, you cannot
(08:20):
please God.
It's the spirit that pleasesGod.
We could update that idea withnot only our spirit, but our
personality, our souls pleasingGod.
And that's the mechanism thatmoves us.
(08:43):
Our conscience, all within ourspirit, can get us motivated to
please God.
But all of us line up.
I mean, we just had thesacrament of confession.
Every week we have it.
And it's not just words, it's uspreparing for this, that our
(09:04):
flesh be cleansed, so that ourspirits can give praise to God.
So we go by our will and we askthe Lord to forgive us.
By our conscience, we evaluatewhat we've done.
We've evaluated our sins.
We remove prejudice and hate andgreed.
But our spirit does that to ourflesh.
(09:30):
So although we are one, we arebody and soul.
In our tradition as Catholics,we believe that when our body
dies, our spirit restssomewhere.
I'm not going to say where,traditionally, rests in God.
But if you're going to hell, youain't resting in God.
(09:53):
But we can all get ready forthat.
If we were animals, notfull-legged animals, if we
treated people like animals andwe were animals while we're here
on earth, that's our fleshtaking hold.
If we disrespected our ownbodies or the bodies of others,
that's our flesh taking hold.
(10:14):
Be clear on this.
When we do that, sin, we callit, it's our spirit working with
our flesh.
And our spirit gives in.
So the conscience, the soul, thespirit is important that we
(10:36):
nourish it and nurture it asPaul encourages us today.
The Lord fills us with hisspirit.
And the Holy Spirit must dwellwithin us.
We can cast out the Holy Spiritvery easily through sin.
(10:59):
We can tell God, basically, goto hell, get out of my life.
And there are many who have donethat, and people throughout the
world who have done that.
But each person is judgedindividually, not by society.
So we are here today encouragedto realize what Paul is telling
(11:21):
us, that our spirits must workwith our flesh.
Our attitude, our conscience,our souls must work with our
flesh.
Because eventually they'll beseparated.
The greatest example, thegreatest is the resurrection of
(11:43):
Jesus, which we celebrate in afew weeks.
But today we have a friend ofJesus, Lazarus, who died, and we
don't know his sin or his stateof grace, but he did die.
So God, through Jesus, isfulfilling the scripture of
(12:06):
Ezekiel.
That didn't happen untilLazarus, and of course, with
Jesus.
So today we have the fulfillmentof this scripture from Ezekiel
that Jesus will raise us up.
(12:32):
And it's not a deal, it's not abargain, it's not a contract.
Jesus shows up at the tomb.
Then later on Mary will say thesame thing.
If you have been there.
No, there's no ifs, ands, orbuts with Jesus.
(12:56):
He doesn't heal us if, if, ifthis is not a bargain.
This is not a flea market.
This is not a lottery.
Jesus doesn't wait for your ormy if.
He reads our hearts.
He knows our intentions.
(13:19):
He shows up at the tomb.
And he says something veryinteresting, recorded by John,
and John is such a wonderfulscripture, scholar, and writer.
He stops before he speaks out toLazarus or his family and speaks
(13:39):
to God his Father.
He says, Father, thank you forbringing me to this moment.
Now you realize Lazarus is abuddy of Jesus.
Jesus hung out with Lazarus, ateat his house.
Mary and Martha are buddies withJesus.
So this is family.
Jesus ate with them.
(14:00):
Mary's the one who washed Jesus'feet.
And he speaks to God the Fatherand says, if you wish, thank you
for bringing me to this moment.
And this is for your glory.
And what I'm saying, I'm sayingso they hear.
(14:22):
So everyone witnesses to what'sgoing on and what I say and my
relationship with you, God theFather.
And then he does something veryodd.
I've been to the catacombs inRome.
(14:43):
They're clean, but originallythey were not meant to be clean.
They held the corpse of deadpeople.
Some have mud over theirlocations.
They're like in little shelves,you might say, loculi.
(15:04):
Some of them are in cubiculums,which are larger areas, but even
those are covered over with apiece of marble or stone.
And nearby the tombs are littleholes in the wall that would
have held perfumed oil orflowers.
(15:27):
Because they were tombs.
They stunk of dead people.
Yeah, there were martyrs, yeah,there were saints, yeah, there
were early Christians, but theirbodies rotted and they stunk.
So when Jesus says, pull backthe stone, Lazarus' sister says,
(15:49):
Oh, Jesus, there'll be a stench.
He's been dead four days.
So Jesus knew the truth.
We eventually learned the truthwith dead people.
Sometimes we get reports, peoplein a neighborhood notice a
stench coming from a particularapartment.
They call the police and theyfind someone dead days.
(16:12):
So Jesus knew the truth.
There's gonna be a stink whenthat door opens.
But yeah, Jesus is acting onbehalf of God the Father.
And he uses his conscience andhis soul and his spiritual
relationship.
(16:33):
And he says something in a fewseconds.
But as he's standing there, hereminds all of us how tender a
moment this was.
(16:59):
Wept.
So important for us.
He's one of us.
Yes, he's God, but he's one ofus.
As you and I weep for those welove who are ill or have passed,
we're one with Jesus, and Jesusis one with us.
And that didn't stop him.
(17:22):
They roll back the stone.
We heard it.
Lazarus, come out.
And the corpse, not dead, walksout with the shroud bands around
him.
(17:43):
Jesus tells them, take off theshroud, remove, untie him, set
him free.
He just brought Lazarus back tolife.
You and I have never seen that.
From the time of creation tothis moment, no one has ever
seen that.
(18:05):
We're here today because the onewho did that is life.
He is the resurrection.
He is our hope.
He knows our souls and ourhearts.
And he calls us forward.
And the scriptures give us thisreminder of what's going to be
celebrated in a few weeks whenwe celebrate Jesus Christ coming
(18:32):
back from the dead.
Jesus Christ alive and neverdies again.
That's why we're here.
That's why every church in theworld has been built.
Because we believe he's alive.
Because in his words, he is theresurrection and the life.
(18:59):
As we continue our Holy Week,next week after Palm Sunday,
Holy Thursday and Good Friday,the sacred, the most sacred days
of our church year.
Try to be here.
Try to be at those sacred days,Holy Thursday, when the feet of
(19:20):
the disciples are washed, andGood Friday, when Christ is
crucified, and of course, theday of the resurrection.
That's why we're here.
As we pray for those who areill, for those who have died, we
put them all in the hands ofGod, and we continue to live in
(19:41):
Jesus, the resurrection, and thelife.
The Lord be with you.
A reading from the Holy Gospelaccording to John.
The sisters of Lazarus sent wordto Jesus saying, Master, the one
(01:25):
you love is ill.
When Jesus heard this, he said,This illness is not to end in
death, but it is for the gloryof God, that the Son of God may
be glorified through it.
Now Jesus loved Martha and hersister and Lazarus.
(01:47):
So when he heard that he wasill, he remained for two more
days in the place where he was.
Then after this he said to hisdisciples, let us go back to
Judea.
When Jesus arrived, he foundthat Lazarus had already been in
the tomb for four days.
(02:08):
When Martha heard that Jesus wascoming, she went out to meet
him.
But Mary sat at home.
Martha said, Lord, if you hadbeen here, my brother would not
have died.
But even now I know thatwhatever you ask of God, God
will give you.
Jesus said, Your brother willrise.
(02:31):
Martha said, I know he will risein the resurrection on the last
day, Jesus told her, I am theresurrection and the life.
Whoever believes in me, even ifhe dies, will live, and whoever
lives and believes in me willnever die.
(02:55):
Do you believe?
She said to Jesus, Yes, I havecome to believe that you are the
Christ, the Son of God, the onewho is coming into the world.
He became perturbed and deeplytroubled, and said, Where have
you laid him?
(03:16):
She said to him, Sir, come andsee.
And Jesus wept.
So the Jews said, See how heloved him?
But some said, Could not the onewho opened the eyes of the blind
man have done something so thatthis man would not have died?
(03:38):
So Jesus, perturbed again, cameto the tomb.
It was a cave, and a stone layacross it.
Jesus said, Take away the stone.
Martha said, the dead man'ssister to Jesus, Lord, by now
there'll be a stench.
He's been dead for four days.
(03:59):
Jesus said, Did I not tell youthat if you believe you will see
the glory of God?
So they took away the stone, andJesus raised his eyes to heaven
and said, Father, I thank youfor hearing me.
I know that you always hear me,but because of the crowd here I
(04:21):
have said this, that they maybelieve that you sent me.
And when he said this, he saidin a loud voice, Lazarus, come
out.
The dead man came out, tied handand foot with burial bands.
His face was wrapped in a cloth.
(04:43):
So Jesus said to the crowds,Untie him and let him go.
Now many of the Jews who hadcome to Mary and seen what he
had done now began to believe inhim.
The gospel of the Lord JesusChrist.
(05:14):
This homily, this gospel, thesereadings are a challenge to all
of us.
All of us have intentions on thealtar or in our hearts, or
people we pray for and arepraying for, some of whom are
(05:35):
ill, some of whom have died.
And we come here with our ownagenda, our own prayer list, and
we hear this Jesus raisingLazarus from the dead.
Might challenge us, I don'tknow.
(05:57):
Might disappoint us, I don'tknow.
But we're not looking at us,we're looking at Jesus today.
We're not looking at how wepray, but the answer to our
prayers, Jesus.
We were prepared for thisreading by the first two
readings.
(06:18):
One, that beautiful, mysticalreading from Ezekiel.
People of Israel were returninghome from Babylon after
generations of persecution andabandonment, and they had no
faith, they had no hope.
(06:42):
And the prophet Ezekiel,inspired by God, says, Oh my
people, I will open your gravesand bring you back to the land
of Israel, that you may know Iam your God.
Centuries before Jesus did this,Ezekiel is inspired by God to
(07:10):
tell us that God will open ourgraves.
Now all of us have ancestors whoare engraves in tombs or in
urns, their mortal remains.
And we don't expect theresurrection of those people,
(07:33):
but we do expect it at one pointbecause God said it will happen.
I will open your graves andyou'll come back.
From Ezekiel to Jesus, it neverhappened until Jesus comes on
the scene.
We're also inspired today tounderstand these special
(07:55):
readings from Paul's letter tothe Romans because he's
explaining what our conditionson earth are like.
Traditionally, we say we aremade body and soul in the image
of God.
But Paul's reminding us ifyou're in the flesh, you cannot
(08:20):
please God.
It's the spirit that pleasesGod.
We could update that idea withnot only our spirit, but our
personality, our souls pleasingGod.
And that's the mechanism thatmoves us.
(08:43):
Our conscience, all within ourspirit, can get us motivated to
please God.
But all of us line up.
I mean, we just had thesacrament of confession.
Every week we have it.
And it's not just words, it's uspreparing for this, that our
(09:04):
flesh be cleansed, so that ourspirits can give praise to God.
So we go by our will and we askthe Lord to forgive us.
By our conscience, we evaluatewhat we've done.
We've evaluated our sins.
We remove prejudice and hate andgreed.
But our spirit does that to ourflesh.
(09:30):
So although we are one, we arebody and soul.
In our tradition as Catholics,we believe that when our body
dies, our spirit restssomewhere.
I'm not going to say where,traditionally, rests in God.
But if you're going to hell, youain't resting in God.
(09:53):
But we can all get ready forthat.
If we were animals, notfull-legged animals, if we
treated people like animals andwe were animals while we're here
on earth, that's our fleshtaking hold.
If we disrespected our ownbodies or the bodies of others,
that's our flesh taking hold.
(10:14):
Be clear on this.
When we do that, sin, we callit, it's our spirit working with
our flesh.
And our spirit gives in.
So the conscience, the soul, thespirit is important that we
(10:36):
nourish it and nurture it asPaul encourages us today.
The Lord fills us with hisspirit.
And the Holy Spirit must dwellwithin us.
We can cast out the Holy Spiritvery easily through sin.
(10:59):
We can tell God, basically, goto hell, get out of my life.
And there are many who have donethat, and people throughout the
world who have done that.
But each person is judgedindividually, not by society.
So we are here today encouragedto realize what Paul is telling
(11:21):
us, that our spirits must workwith our flesh.
Our attitude, our conscience,our souls must work with our
flesh.
Because eventually they'll beseparated.
The greatest example, thegreatest is the resurrection of
(11:43):
Jesus, which we celebrate in afew weeks.
But today we have a friend ofJesus, Lazarus, who died, and we
don't know his sin or his stateof grace, but he did die.
So God, through Jesus, isfulfilling the scripture of
(12:06):
Ezekiel.
That didn't happen untilLazarus, and of course, with
Jesus.
So today we have the fulfillmentof this scripture from Ezekiel
that Jesus will raise us up.
(12:32):
And it's not a deal, it's not abargain, it's not a contract.
Jesus shows up at the tomb.
Then later on Mary will say thesame thing.
If you have been there.
No, there's no ifs, ands, orbuts with Jesus.
(12:56):
He doesn't heal us if, if, ifthis is not a bargain.
This is not a flea market.
This is not a lottery.
Jesus doesn't wait for your ormy if.
He reads our hearts.
He knows our intentions.
(13:19):
He shows up at the tomb.
And he says something veryinteresting, recorded by John,
and John is such a wonderfulscripture, scholar, and writer.
He stops before he speaks out toLazarus or his family and speaks
(13:39):
to God his Father.
He says, Father, thank you forbringing me to this moment.
Now you realize Lazarus is abuddy of Jesus.
Jesus hung out with Lazarus, ateat his house.
Mary and Martha are buddies withJesus.
So this is family.
Jesus ate with them.
(14:00):
Mary's the one who washed Jesus'feet.
And he speaks to God the Fatherand says, if you wish, thank you
for bringing me to this moment.
And this is for your glory.
And what I'm saying, I'm sayingso they hear.
(14:22):
So everyone witnesses to what'sgoing on and what I say and my
relationship with you, God theFather.
And then he does something veryodd.
I've been to the catacombs inRome.
(14:43):
They're clean, but originallythey were not meant to be clean.
They held the corpse of deadpeople.
Some have mud over theirlocations.
They're like in little shelves,you might say, loculi.
(15:04):
Some of them are in cubiculums,which are larger areas, but even
those are covered over with apiece of marble or stone.
And nearby the tombs are littleholes in the wall that would
have held perfumed oil orflowers.
(15:27):
Because they were tombs.
They stunk of dead people.
Yeah, there were martyrs, yeah,there were saints, yeah, there
were early Christians, but theirbodies rotted and they stunk.
So when Jesus says, pull backthe stone, Lazarus' sister says,
(15:49):
Oh, Jesus, there'll be a stench.
He's been dead four days.
So Jesus knew the truth.
We eventually learned the truthwith dead people.
Sometimes we get reports, peoplein a neighborhood notice a
stench coming from a particularapartment.
They call the police and theyfind someone dead days.
(16:12):
So Jesus knew the truth.
There's gonna be a stink whenthat door opens.
But yeah, Jesus is acting onbehalf of God the Father.
And he uses his conscience andhis soul and his spiritual
relationship.
(16:33):
And he says something in a fewseconds.
But as he's standing there, hereminds all of us how tender a
moment this was.
(16:59):
Wept.
So important for us.
He's one of us.
Yes, he's God, but he's one ofus.
As you and I weep for those welove who are ill or have passed,
we're one with Jesus, and Jesusis one with us.
And that didn't stop him.
(17:22):
They roll back the stone.
We heard it.
Lazarus, come out.
And the corpse, not dead, walksout with the shroud bands around
him.
(17:43):
Jesus tells them, take off theshroud, remove, untie him, set
him free.
He just brought Lazarus back tolife.
You and I have never seen that.
From the time of creation tothis moment, no one has ever
seen that.
(18:05):
We're here today because the onewho did that is life.
He is the resurrection.
He is our hope.
He knows our souls and ourhearts.
And he calls us forward.
And the scriptures give us thisreminder of what's going to be
celebrated in a few weeks whenwe celebrate Jesus Christ coming
(18:32):
back from the dead.
Jesus Christ alive and neverdies again.
That's why we're here.
That's why every church in theworld has been built.
Because we believe he's alive.
Because in his words, he is theresurrection and the life.
(18:59):
As we continue our Holy Week,next week after Palm Sunday,
Holy Thursday and Good Friday,the sacred, the most sacred days
of our church year.
Try to be here.
Try to be at those sacred days,Holy Thursday, when the feet of
(19:20):
the disciples are washed, andGood Friday, when Christ is
crucified, and of course, theday of the resurrection.
That's why we're here.
As we pray for those who areill, for those who have died, we
put them all in the hands ofGod, and we continue to live in
(19:41):
Jesus, the resurrection, and thelife.
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