Summary of a Fr. Gerry Creedon homily from March 13, 2005
"I am the resurrection and the life...untie him and let him go free." John 11
THIS IS THE WINTER that will not quit.
Monday brought 60-degree weather and warm breezes. Along came Monday and icicles were hanging to the branches. Yet we have the assurance of spring in the budding crocuses and daffodils. Green patches of grass are beginning to show in time for St Patrick, and purple Lenten colors are overcome by emerald.
The season matches the scriptural message. Lent has no reason of itself. It is the midwife of new life. Lent is out spiritual springtime. The raising of Lazarus promises even greater things to come. "Lazarus come out!"
Last week I visited the chapel at Missionhurst. Their missionaries serve in Haiti, Latin America and Asia. Beside the door near the tithing box stands a carving of the poor man, gagged, bound, his wrists in chains. This is not the "Si Dios Quiere" ,if God wills it, approach to poverty. Misery is seen not as a chosen option but the result of oppressive structures.
"Untie him and let him go free!" were the words addressed to Lazarus by Jesus. Easter proclaims our liberation from all that binds the human spirit, every oppression, even death itself.
Let us live this paschal mystery in our daily living as well as at the end of all. May every anxiety that entombs us, every structure that weighs too heavily on the vulnerable, every stone that seals our grave in hopelessness give way to the resurrection and the life. Not even the icy fingers of a long winter can long detain the promise of Christ Risen.