Sunday 26 March 2023 V of the Season of Lent

+ From the Gospel according to John (short form) (11, 1 – 45)

At that time, a certain Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha, was ill. Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, behold, the one you love is sick.”
Hearing this, Jesus said: “This sickness will not lead to death, but it is for the glory of God, so that through it the Son of God may be glorified.” Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. When he heard that he was sick, he stayed for two days where he was. Then he said to his disciples, “Let’s go back to Judea!” The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, a while ago the Jews were trying to stone you and are you going there again?” Jesus answered, “Aren’t there twelve hours in the day? If one walks during the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world; but if he walks at night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him”.
He said these things and then added to them: «Lazarus, our friend, has fallen asleep; but I’m going to wake him up.” The disciples then said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be saved.” Jesus had spoken of his death; instead they thought he was talking about the rest of sleep. Then Jesus openly said to them: «Lazarus is dead and I am glad for you that I was not there, so that you may believe; but let us go to him!». Then Thomas, called Didymus, said to the other disciples: “Let us also go and die with him!”.
When Jesus arrived, he found Lazarus who had already been in the tomb for four days. Bethany was less than three kilometers from Jerusalem and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them for their brother. Martha therefore, when she heard that Jesus was coming, went to meet him; Maria, on the other hand, was sitting in her house. Martha said to Jesus: «Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died! But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give it to you.” Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.” Marta answered him: «I know that he will rise again in the resurrection of the last day». Jesus told her: «I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, he will live; whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?». She answered him: “Yes, O Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who comes into the world”.
Having said these words, he went to call Maria, he was her sister, and secretly he said to her: «The Master is here and he is calling you». Hearing this, she immediately got up and went to him. Jesus had not entered the village, but he was still there where Martha had gone to meet him. So the Jews, who were at home with her consoling her, seeing Mary get up quickly and leave her, followed her, thinking that she was going to her tomb to weep.
When Mary reached where Jesus was, as soon as she saw him she threw herself at her feet saying to him: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died!”. Jesus then, when he saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her weeping too, was deeply moved and, greatly disturbed, asked: «Where did you put him?». They said to him, “Lord, come and see!” Jesus burst into tears. The Jews then said, “Look how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Couldn’t he who opened the blind man’s eyes also prevent him from dying?”
Then Jesus, once again deeply moved, went to the tomb: it was a cave and a stone was placed against it. Jesus said: «Take away the stone!». Marta, the dead man’s sister, answered him: “Lord, it already smells bad: it has been there for four days”. Jesus said to her: “Didn’t I tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” So they removed the stone. Jesus then raised his eyes and said: «Father, I thank you because you have listened to me. I knew that you always listen to me, but I said it for the sake of the people around me, so that they may believe that you sent me.” Having said this, he cried out in a loud voice: «Lazarus, come out!». The dead man came out, his feet and hands bound with bandages, and his face wrapped in a shroud. Jesus said to them, “Release him and let him go.”
Many of the Jews who had come to Mary, seeing what he had done, believed in him.

Word of the Lord.