-
“Untie him and let him go.”
We get weary hearing persistent clutches of evils and deadly forces. Russia’s unprovoked invasion
of Ukraine continues to threaten world peace. So many people suffer from gun violence in this country, human trafficking around the world, deprivation of basic human rights in many countries etc. On individual and social levels, we run into corrigible but persisting ignorance, inability to reform and repent, undermining and destroying all the good things while failing to admit one’s own culpability. These symptoms are often found among arrogant and egotistical individuals and governments. They slowly paralyze the ability to act and think properly.
Perhaps this spiritual paralysis partially explains senseless violation of human rights and its continuation in spite of much publicity and opposition. The impairment and loss of moral and spiritual judgment makes possible the exploitation of desperate people. To many of these victims living seems almost worse than dying. Many are in the grip of death. For example, the people of North Korea have been hostages in their own land over seventy years.
Having opened a new possibility to a Samaritan woman, having endowed a man with a gift of sight, Jesus today restores life to a man who was under the firm grip of death in the tomb. Jesus commands: “Lazarus, come out!” and tells others: “Untie him and let him go.” Finally, Jesus overcomes even death.
Death seems so final and terminal. But we say it is liminal, namely, it is the threshold to pass to another stage of life. Addictions, spiritual paralysis, and tyrannies seem so permanent and beyond remedy. But God has the final word, not them. St. Paul confidently pronounces: “If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the One who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit dwelling in you.”
Through the indwelling Spirit, we can be freed from the bondage of sin and even death. Jesus wants to untie us from the captivity through Baptism and Confirmation, through the Sacrament of Reconciliation and the Eucharist. We are invited to plunge into the life-restoring mercy of our loving God in celebrating these sacraments.
We pray for those who will receive the Easter Sacraments, and for those shackled by deadly forces and conditions to find ways to true freedom and life.
Fr. Paul D. Lee