Death isn´t the end!

V Sunday Lent “A” John 11:3-7, 17, 20-27, 33b-45 The sisters of Lazarus sent word to Jesus, saying, “Master, the one you love is ill.” When Jesus heard this he said, “This illness is not to end in death, but is for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that he was ill, he remained for two days in the place where he was. Then after this he said to his disciples, "Let us go back to Judea.” When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming,she went to meet him; but Mary sat at home. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise.”Martha said, “I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus told her,“I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord.I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God,the one who is coming into the world.” He became perturbed and deeply troubled, and said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Sir, come and see.” And Jesus wept.So the Jews said, “See how he loved him.” But some of them said, “Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man have done something so that this man would not have died?” So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay across it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the dead man’s sister, said to him, “Lord, by now there will be a stench; he has been dead for four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?”So they took away the stone. And Jesus raised his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you for hearing me. I know that you always hear me; but because of the crowd here I have said this, that they may believe that you sent me.” And when he had said this,He cried out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”The dead man came out, tied hand and foot with burial bands, and his face was wrapped in a cloth. So Jesus said to them,“Untie him and let him go.” Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary and seen what he had done began to believe in him.

I don't like endings. If I'm eating something really yummy I don't like it when the food runs out, “Sorry, no more!” Looking into the pot and seeing, "there's no more." Reading a good book or watching an excellent movie, I don't want it to end! If we are at a party, the music is very good, everyone is happy dancing, talking, and they say, “last song,” how sad! I don't like it when the christmas season ends, or when vacations are over. Endings are sad! I don't know how you feel about death. Of course we are sad when someone we love dies, we will miss them because they won´t be with us in the same way anymore. Maybe we are afraid of our own death. There are many things we can say about death. Many feelings, expressions and thoughts. But there is one thing we cannot say about death, at least for us Catholic Christians: it is not the end!! Death is not the end of our lives, death was not the end for Lazarus, death was not the end for our loved ones. It's not going to be our end either, and it certainly wasn't the end of Jesus. Today's gospel is known as "the resurrection of Lazarus," but this is not really the important part of the story. Yes, Lazarus was dead, his sisters were sad, Jesus too, it says that Jesus wept. The shortest verse in the Bible. We know that Lazarus did come back to life, but since he's not here on earth when know he had to die again. If that was all that happened was that Lazarus got another 20, 30 years the story wouldn{t be important. But Lazarus, Martha, Mary, Jesus, our loved ones, are still alive. They all live for ever. For those who believe there is no end. No, the important part of the story is the conversation between Jesus and Martha. It is in the middle of history. When Jesus said to Martha, "Your brother will rise again," Martha answered, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection of the last day." Jesus said to him, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, even if he is dies, will live; and everyone who is alive and believes in me will never die. And now for the central part of the story: Do you believe this?"Jesus asks Martha, “Do you believe this?” This question for Marta is the key question for us? Do you believe that Jesus is the resurrection and the life? It is the central question of our faith. If we believe that Jesus is the resurrection and the life, we will live forever. This does not mean that we are not sad at the death of a loved one, nor that we are not afraid of dying ourselves. This is the point of our Lenten journey. To walk together with Jesus, to take up our crosses and also to die just as Lazarus did, just as Jesus did. But for us believers, that is not the end! Death is never the end, it is always the beginning of something new. Eternal life with Christ Jesus.