St. Joseph of the Lakes

Lord Jesus Christ, you commanded Lazarus to step forth from his tomb and by your own resurrection freed all people from death. We pray for your servant Weston, who eagerly approaches the waters of new birth and hunger for the banquet of life.

Do not let the power of death hold him back, for, by his faith, he will share in the triumph of your resurrection, for you live and reign for ever and ever. (From the Third Scrutiny)

I always found the easter bunny to be a confusing symbol for the great feast of Easter. I have read that it goes back to neolithic times when often a hare (bunny) would be buried with the deceased as a symbol of regenerating life. Given the rabbit’s prolific ability to reproduce; it would not take much observation to see that although the rabbit might be the favorite food of birds of prey and hungry humans, there always seemed to be more of them. By the 1600’s the easter bunny became part of the German people’s celebration of Easter involving children searching for easter eggs left behind by the “easter bunny” much the same as we do in our present age. The easter bunny has nothing to do with the season of Easter or the reality that we are about to celebrate. The Cadbury bunny; however; seems to be alive and well even as the power of Easter dims for so many.

Today’s celebration of the fifth Sunday of Lent and the third scrutiny seem much more appropriate to this final week of preparation for Holy Week and Easter Sunday. It always strikes me as strange that as John’s Gospel relates: “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.”  Why didn’t he either send forth his healing presence or instead travel to Bethany to rescue Lazarus from whatever was afflicting him? 

His love for Lazarus is so great he gives him a share in his glory by raising him from the dead. In that same moment he reveals to Mary and Martha the great truth of who he is: The Resurrection and the Life. I find myself wondering what it must have been like for Lazarus after that first Easter Sunday when Jesus defeated death and rose from the tomb? We have a plethora of stories of people who have had near death experiences who report a sense of well-being and beauty in that in-between time, yet the only person we know for sure who was dead (in the tomb for fours days) and wrapped in burial clothes was Lazarus. I wonder if he reflected on the time that he was dead, or did he keep his focus on the One who raised him from the dead: Jesus Christ. I suspect strongly that his focus was on the One who gave him life. He would be an authentic apostle of the power of the Risen One. This is our prayer for Weston (and all who are undergoing the third scrutiny this week) that soon he will be sharing in the triumph of Jesus’ resurrection this Easter Vigil.