With Opened Bible

“O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them, and bring you back to the land of Israel.” (Ezekiel 37:12)

Israel was in exile in Babylon for 70 years. They couldn't celebrate God as they knew how in the Holy Land. For them, it was a form of spiritual death, since they were far from His land and the Temple. It is in this context of spiritual death that the prophet Ezekiel proclaimed this passage from the first reading for this Sunday: "O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them, and bring you back to the land of Israel." Exile was a tomb in which Israel was imprisoned.

Now, if we turn to the Gospel, the same theme is presented today: the resurrection of Lazarus. After being buried for four days, Jesus came and brought him out. The tomb that imprisoned his body was wide open. It is yet another sign of a great liberation, both physical and spiritual: "Lazarus, come out!" The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with burial bands, and his face wrapped in a cloth. So Jesus said to them, "Tie him and let him go."

The resurrection of Lazarus is the miracle that would lead him to death, for the Pharisees had decided to put him to death, noting the number of priests who expressed a desire to follow him.

(Cf. John 11:45-55)

By contemplating these two readings, we discern the truth about God's plan for our humanity: life. Jesus came so that the world might have life. (John 3:16) To accomplish this, he resorts to the destruction of our tombs, that is, everything that holds us captive and renders us incapable of God.

Sin is the enemy of our humanity, and salvation in Jesus is its remedy. We are prisoners of our evil tendencies and ideologies contrary to the Gospel. Let us welcome the word of life so that we may be truly free to serve Him. For it is written: "For freedom, Christ set us free; so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery." (Galatians 5:1)