From Ashes to New Life



Dr. Kate DeVries, rising
from what is believed to be
Lazarus' tomb in
Bethany, Israel

 As I listened to Martha speak in Sunday’s Gospel of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, I found myself thinking of my own big brother.  [Click here to Read the Gospel.]  He died a few months after his thirty-first birthday.   Like so many of us who have suffered the loss of a loved one, I know the depth of pain Martha and Mary were experiencing.  I wonder just how old Lazarus was when he died…. 

Thankfully, I have also experienced the sense of relief and hope that comes when Jesus enters the scene. Jesus came to me through family members, friends, and colleagues who reminded me that love is stronger than death, and that my brother, like all who have gone before us, forever will be in God’s loving embrace.  When I mentioned to a colleague that my faith was shaken and I didn’t know just what to believe, he shared that it is the role of the faith community to believe for me until I was ready to believe again. They did.  Jesus came to me through personal prayer time, during which he and I had many long conversations (although I admit, I did most of the talking).  Jesus came to me through a therapist, who helped me overcome night terrors, work through my grief, and find happiness again with my brother beyond my grasp. Jesus came to me through ordinary, everyday events  like the warmth of a sunny day, things in my garden blooming, and kind gestures shared by both people I knew and strangers.   Finally, after almost two years, Jesus came to me with a deeper understanding that resurrection is real.

“I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he [or she] dies, will live,” Jesus tells us today, two weeks before Easter.    “Do you believe this?” he asks, both Martha and us. 

Sunday marked the 5^th Sunday of Lent.  We have worked our way from the dust of Ash Wednesday through the temptations in the desert, to the transfiguration where Jesus spoke to Moses and Elijah, to the woman at the well where Jesus promised “a spring of water welling up to eternal life,” to the blind man who gained physical and spiritual sight, and now to Martha, Mary and the rising of Lazarus.  Jesus has triumphed over evil (the devil), consulted Moses (the Law) and Elijah (the Prophets), and crossed two cultural boundaries by speaking with a woman who was a Samaritan.  Plus, Jesus has healed a blind man, and raised a dead man.  Along the way, he has changes lives, made some powerful enemies, and attracted multitudes of believers.  

These stories are put before us now to help us answer that question:   “Do you believe this?”  Do you believe in the resurrection?  Other questions that we are invited to answer in faith:  Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God, the Resurrection, and the Life?  Do you believe that because of Christ, life is stronger than death? 

This week, with two weeks to go before Easter, look for Resurrection; look for Christ.  Where are you seeing New Life? 

Kate DeVries

Kate is the Associate Director of the Young Adult Ministry Office.  After her graduation from Catholic Theological Union, she treated herself to a 3-week trip through Israel.