Fifth Sunday of Lent, Year A - 3/22/26

By Father Boby John, C.S.C.

If listeners remember only one thing this Sunday, it should be this: God is never late. He is working on a timeline that resurrection requires, not convenience demands. The Fifth Sunday of Lent calls every family to stand before their own sealed tomb and hear Jesus ask, not Do you understand? but "Do you believe?" 

Scripture Insight

John 11 is the longest and theologically richest miracle narrative in the Fourth Gospel. Jesus’ deliberate two-day delay is not neglect, it is a calculated act of divine pedagogy, designed to move the crowd (and us) from admiration to faith. The name “Lazarus” derives from the Hebrew Eleazar, meaning “God is my help,” which gives the story an ironic dimension: the very man whose name declares divine help has been abandoned to death. Jesus’ weeping (v. 35) is theologically significant in John’s Gospel, which never sentimentalizes Jesus, His tears reveal the Incarnation at full depth: God, who knows the ending, still grieves the journey. The command “Unbind him” (v. 44) is also a communal mandate, resurrection requires community to complete it. This is not merely a miracle story. It is a Christological declaration: “I am the Resurrection and the Life” is the fifth of the seven great I AM statements in John, echoing the divine name from Exodus 3.

Awakening the Faith

The deepest question this Gospel poses is one that cuts through every pew: Is my faith conditional on God showing up when I expect Him? Martha believed in a future, abstract resurrection (“I know He will rise on the last day”). Jesus shifts the question from an event to a Person: “I AM the Resurrection.” The invitation to families is to move from a faith in what God might do one day, to a relationship with who God is right now, present, weeping, and about to act.

The Story

STORY 1
There is a story told of a man in Nairobi named Francis Waweru who, in 2011, was declared dead after a serious accident. His family gathered. The priest was called. The burial arrangements began. Twenty-six hours later, Francis woke up in the mortuary, knocked on the door from the inside, and terrified the mortuary attendant half to death. The newspapers called it a miracle. His mother called it an answered prayer. His younger brother, who had already been eyeing his motorbike, called it the worst timing of his life. (Reference: The Standard, Kenya, 2011) That story always makes people laugh. But it also makes them think. Because most of us, if we are honest, have had a moment where we felt that God had shown up to our crisis twenty-six hours too late.

STORY 2
In 1988, during the Armenian earthquake that killed over 25,000 people, rescuers found a man who had survived eight days in the rubble. He had kept himself alive by rationing a small amount of food. When asked how he endured, he said simply: “I kept hearing my daughter’s voice calling me. I believed she was alive.” She had, in fact, survived. His faith in her voice kept him pressing toward life. Preach it gently: sometimes the voice of the Resurrection calls us before we can see the light. Faith is answering that call before the stone is rolled away.

Family Life Connection

This Gospel speaks directly into the interior tombs that families carry quietly. The parent estranged from a child, the spouse who has all but given up on a struggling marriage, the teenager buried under anxiety and shame, all of them stand with Martha and Mary at the entrance of something sealed and dark. The homily should name these real family experiences without sensationalizing them. The message is not "pretend it’s fine." It is "bring your grief to Jesus and let Him into the stench of it." Martha’s blunt honesty (“Lord, by now he stinks”) is a pastoral model for families: you do not have to dress up your pain for God.

Practical Takeaway for Families

• This week, identify one “sealed tomb” situation in your family life, a broken relationship, a festering hurt, or a fear you haven’t named aloud. Bring it explicitly to prayer as a family, even in one sentence before dinner.

• Ask each family member: “Is there something I can help you ‘unwrap’ this Lent?” a burden, a habit, a wound, and commit to one practical act of support this week.

• Read John 11:35 aloud together (“Jesus wept”) and ask: What does it mean to you that God cries with us before He acts for us?

Monthly Theme

Saint Joseph knew something about sealed tombs of a different kind, the silent suffering of a man who received devastating news, who could not see the full plan, and who nonetheless stayed. Joseph did not receive an explanation from God. He received a dream and a command, and he obeyed. Lazarus’s story resonates with every Joseph-figure in family life: the father who keeps showing up for a child who doesn’t acknowledge him, the spouse who prays faithfully over a marriage that looks like it has no pulse. Joseph is the patron of those who guard and protect what appears to be dead, trusting that God will not let it stay that way.

Building a Stronger Prayer Life at Home

Encourage families to pray the “Martha prayer” this week, simply being honest with God about what feels dead or hopeless. Prayer does not need to be polished to be powerful. Martha said, “If you had been here…” and Jesus answered. God is not offended by honest grief. He walks toward it.

Closing Prayer or Blessing

Lord Jesus, You are the Resurrection and the Life. Where our families carry sealed tombs of grief, broken trust, or silent suffering, roll the stone away. Call us by name. And give us the grace to help one another come unwrapped. Amen.