5th Sunday of Lent: Christ is the LIFE

Jesus said, in John 10:10 that he came so that we may life in the full; Salvation is to have life in the full.
Now later in John, Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead.  I think there is so much here for us to chew on.
Why did Jesus even permit Lazarus to die in the first place?  He could have cured him, even by his word far away.  Where is this fullness of Life?
Jesus gives us reason for his actions.  Yet I think if we were there at the moment, it would be an odd answer: so that we would believe.  Believe in What?  Or rather whom?
Jesus is the resurrection; he is the way, the truth and the life.  He is our salvation, our way to the fullness of life.  Not just fullness of life in heaven, but here in our reality today.
The raising of Lazarus points to this, but more importantly it will be Jesus’ own resurrection that reveals the fullness of life; and what life is all about.
Here is the the issue or the question:  What do we really expect from Jesus?  How do we really expect this resurrection, this life?
I hear people talking with me, in the confession and in conversation, saying that they pray to God, to Jesus, to the Holy Spirit to rid them of their impatience, to get rid of their anger; their pain, these lustful thoughts, make them more nice as a person.
This is not bad.  It shows of a need for change, a degree of awareness.
Yet, the seeming perception is that we wish for God basically to do a magic act, and these unwanted characteristics go away right then and there and the wanted characteristic appear right then and there.
And that is not how it works.
Martha and Mary both approach Jesus with this attitude..Lord if you had only been here to cure my brother.  They wanted results and they wanted results right then and there.
Jesus needed to change their understanding.
We needed to have our understanding changed as well.
What makes us dead?  What keeps us from having the fullness of life
It is the harboring of anger, the bitterness and resentments.
It is the egotism that we have which makes us believe we are right, all others are wrong; which leads to all this ideologies, and -isms’s
It is the fear.
It is the self-centeredness; whether it be about material wealth or focussed only on our individual suffering and problems.
It’s the poverty in our world, the violence in our world.
All of these keep us from having life in the Full.
To have Life in the full is to be as Jesus.  
It is not about a quick and easy results.
It is a life’s journey of loving others, of giving of ourselves for others, and not living only for ourselves.
This is the life of Jesus.
We will hear in the John’s Passion reading that Jesus says he could bring down armies of angels to prevent this all; but he does not.
He could make a miracle happen for him, a quick and easy answer...but he does not.
There is something greater here.
Jesus has revealed that having life in the full is not easy and quick, but it is a life of giving forgiveness, so that the anger is released; so that violence is decreased.
Jesus teaches us that being brought to life is seeing beyond the “I” to “You and I” in communion.
Jesus teaches us the true life is one of humility, knowing that I am not always correct, and others can know more than me.
It is seeing past my suffering, my problems, my loneliness, my anger, my sadness, and seeing the same in others.
It is about being generous so as to end the poverty
A Way of Life is in trusting in the Father’s love, so that fear is reduced.
Jesus is the answer; He is the Way to true Life; not just in some distant future, but NOW
Eucharist then becomes the call to action.
That as we consume the person of Jesus Christ, we make real his way.  
We work for Life.

The true miracle is will we accept his way, his grace, his love...and walk the way?  Will we find the fullness of life?

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