Dear Parish Family,
Today is the 5th and final Sunday of Lent. Next Sunday we begin the Season of Holy Week.
The readings for Fifth Sunday of Lent are about how God can take us from death to new life. Through the raising of Lazarus from the dead, Jesus demonstrates His power over death and foreshadows his own resurrection.
We hear this story of death, but Jesus came to give life, but most especially life eternal. He came to bring joy and happiness, but that which lasts forever, not just for a moment. This Gospel tells us this here in Lent to help us come to live life to the full.
John tells us that Jesus wept. Jesus wept and still weeps not just for Lazarus but also today for the death of faith, and the death of God in many hearts, homes, families and nations. He still weeps for the death of so many people due to hunger, poverty, treatable diseases and neglect by their government and society, of human suffering and the pain that comes with loss.
What we should bring with as we enter Holy Week is to love God, to be one with Him, and to be one with His world. Jesus asks us today to seek his help and that of the community around us to help loosen the chains that bind us up and come out of the tombs of our own creation. He does not want any one of us to be lost to Him through death.
Next weekend we will celebrate Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord. Blessed palms will be distributed.
God Bless you as we continue our journey to Easter.
Fr. Cyrus, Pastor
