 |
| Photo created by James Dacey, Jr. using Co-Pilot. |
Fifth Sunday of Lent
• Year A • Lent 2026 • Year A • Beads of Joy Blog II
✝️ Today's Mass Readings
First Reading: Ezekiel 37:12-14
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 130:1-2, 3-4, 5-7, 7-8
Second Reading: Romans 8:8-11
Gospel: John 11:1-45
📖 The Gospel - John 11:1-45
Lazarus is dead. Four
days in the tomb. His sisters are devastated. Jesus arrives late. Martha runs
to meet Him and says, Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have
died. Jesus says, " Your brother will rise." I AM the resurrection and the life.
Whoever believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this? Then He goes to the
tomb and cries out with a loud voice, Lazarus, come out.
🙏 Gospel Reflection
I AM the resurrection
and the life. The statement is staggering in its directness. Jesus is not
pointing to something outside Himself. He is the answer. He is what Martha is
hoping for, not just a future event on the last day, but a Person standing
right in front of her who contains within Himself the power over death itself.
Ezekiel had seen it in a vision, a valley of
dry bones, utterly dead, and the breath of God moving through them, and sinews
forming, and flesh covering, and breath entering, and they stood up. An entire
nation, alive from the dead. God says to His people, I will open your graves. I
will bring you back. I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live. That
is not a metaphor; it is a promise. And it is being fulfilled right in front of
Martha's eyes.
Lazarus, come out. Those three words carry
the weight of all salvation history. They echo God breathing life into Adam.
They anticipate Jesus calling Himself out of His own tomb on Easter morning.
They reach forward to the last day when all the dead will hear that voice and
rise. And they whisper to every soul sitting in whatever tomb has been holding
them, the dead relationship, the dead dream, the dead faith, the dead hope.
Come out.
Paul tells us in Romans today, the Spirit of
the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you. That same Spirit. The
resurrection Spirit. Living in you right now. Which means whatever feels dead
in you is not beyond reach of the One who stood at a four-day-old tomb and
called a man back to life.
💭 Reflection Question
What is the Lazarus
in your own life, the thing that has been in the tomb so long that it has begun
to feel permanently beyond recovery, and can you hear Jesus standing at that
tomb today saying specifically to you: " Come out?"
📿 Today's Rosary - The Sorrowful Mysteries
Today's Focus
Mystery: The Death of Jesus on
the Cross
Jesus wept at
Lazarus's tomb, fully entering into human grief and loss before commanding its
reversal. On the cross, He entered into death itself before conquering it. As
you pray the fifth Sorrowful Mystery today, hold the death of Jesus and the
raising of Lazarus together, and see in both the same God who goes all the way
into the darkness in order to bring us all the way out of it.
🌹 Our Lady of Fatima - Today's Connection
Our Lady of Fatima
stood at the cross when the voice that called Lazarus out of the tomb fell
silent in death. She did not run from that tomb. She stayed. And three days
later, the voice that had been silent called itself out of the grave. At Fatima, she returned to the world as a messenger of that resurrection power, calling
souls out of the tombs of sin and indifference with the same urgent love. Every
Rosary prayed is a small Lazarus moment, the voice of heaven calling something
in you to come out, to live, to stop being wrapped in burial bands. Next Sunday
is Palm Sunday. We are one week from Holy Week. Come out, my friends. Come out.
🕊️ Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus, You are
the resurrection and the life. Whatever in me has been in the tomb, I hear You
calling. Lazarus, come out. Here I come, Lord. Unwrap me. Set me free. Walk me
into the light. I believe. Amen.
©2026 James Dacey, Jr., OFS
________________________________________________
Want to know more
about My Spiritual Journey?
Read My Story: An Invitation
To Read My Story - My Testimony
