At first glance, we are taken up by the account of Lazarus and his raising. In fact, the shortest verse in the bible consists of two words: “Jesus wept”. Weeping is a common sight at every funeral where because of great love, people wrench their hearts out for their beloved. [It seemed that raising Lazarus was not really a miracle because Jesus cried so loud that He woke Lazarus].Anyway, a closer scrutiny will reveal that the raising of Lazarus actually points to the mystery of the resurrection. At the heart of the resurrection we find the sacrament of eternal life. The question is: “How is the Eucharist linked to the Resurrection?”.
The Resurrection is a funny sort of belief. Why? We profess a belief in the resurrection but it seems like we believe it for others because, at the time of death, many of us will behave as if there is no Resurrection. Alternatively, you can say that we profess it at the head but not at the heart. This is not at all a negative judgement of people who grieve. Perhaps this fact can be explained by love. For those whom we ought to love—for example, a second in a room with an enemy whose eyes you want to gorge out feels like an excruciating lifetime. But, for those whom we love—a lifetime is but a second. There is never enough time for those whom we love. Whilst love may explain why we set aside our belief in the Resurrection during moments of grief, it is also love which founds our hope in the Resurrection.
This hope is expressed through the Eucharist because the Eucharist is the food for and of the Resurrection. How?
You remember John’s Gospel where Christ had a conversation with the Jews, right after He had multiplied bread and fish to feed 5000. The people who later came looking for Him were looking for physical nourishment. But, Christ told them to look for the kind of bread that will sustain them for eternal life. He offered Himself as that bread and He told them unambiguously, “If you want eternal life, eat My Flesh”. The result was confusion and practically all left Him. He turned to the Twelve: “What about you, do you want to go away too?” Simon Peter answered for all of us, “Lord, who shall we go to? You have the message of eternal life.”
Christ did not mince His words with regard to eating His Flesh in order to gain eternal life. The Body of Christ is food necessary for eternal life. Therefore, in the context of His unambiguous declaration, it would be ridiculous of Him not to provide us with the means for eternal life. Christ cannot make that statement without making sure that He supplies us with this Bread. This is what I mean by the Eucharist is at the heart of the Resurrection.
When we die we enter another plane of existence not constrained by time and space. Another plane of existence simply means that since time and space do not apply, the person may be dead with the body still in a coffin, yet he could already be purified. [1]
This is awesome implication for those who are baptised. The Church is at her best in the Eucharist because this is where the dead and the living are gathered as one to praise God. The altar is where the ecclesia militans, ecclesia triumphans, ecclesia penitens gather. And in order to be here, to enjoy the fruit of Christ’s Resurrection, the ecclecia triumphans and ecclesia penitens must have eaten the bread of eternal life when they were here on earth.
Let me tell you a real story to illustrate how important the Eucharist is to the Resurrection and here I want to reach out to those who are entering into a relationship that might lead to marriage.
I was called to the hospital the other day. It was an urgent call and I brought two important elements: oil for anointing and Holy Communion. I asked the usual question: “Can receive Holy Communion ah?”. The person said “No”. “Why?”. “Not married in Church”. It was an honest but painful answer. I discovered the reason which in the past may have made sense but here in the moment of life and dead, the reason no longer held. So I heard her confession and gave Holy Communion. She has since died.
It was a tragic funeral. She was not that old. In the room of the hospital where I had gone to, minus the pain of the so-called excommunication, I could sense that I was in the presence of a loving couple. At the funeral, I asked the husband if he loved her. It was a rhetorical question because the answer was obvious. Then I asked the reverse if he knew how much she had loved him. She had loved him that much to give up Christ. For more than 20 years, she deprived herself of Holy Communion for the man she loved. But all was not lost because at the moment of death, she regained everything and the Holy Communion she received was truly a “Viaticum”. It was really the Bread for the journey to eternal life. She received Christ who became her companion from this life to the next. And so, at the funeral, even as her body lay in decay, but freed from time, space and pain, and taking into consideration that she might already have been purified since we can only measure purgatory according to our time and space, she could already be present at the altar with the saints and the angels. Finally, I told the husband if he wanted to be close to her, the best physical location to be, where earth was joined to heaven, was to be at the Eucharist. This is an implication of the Eucharist at the heart of the Resurrection.
Those of you who are falling in love with non-Catholics. This is what you ought to remember: the Eucharist is our ticket to the Resurrection—it is the only Bread for and of Eternal Life. So, even at the beginning of your dating, this must be raised by you that you need Christ for your eternal life. It is perfectly alright to marry a non-Catholic. It is perfectly alright that your spouse does not convert. However, the rule that applies to children is different.
Why is it different? They need to be brought up and baptised as Catholics. Sometimes people will say, “Why cannot wait until they are old enough to think for themselves? In the matter of religion we should not force”. The answer lies in your children’s nutrition, education, health etc. What do I mean? In the case of dengue fever, you would never think of waiting until your child is 21 years old before deciding to seek medical help. Routinely you make decisions for your children. Baptism is a matter of eternal life because it opens the door to the Bread of Life.
And, you should be careful not to introduce a logical contradiction into your life. How? Each time you “communicate” [receive Holy Communion], you are assenting to the belief that the Bread you eat will lead you to eternal life. By refusing to baptise your child, you also saying: “I only believe it for myself but not for my child”. It is almost like saying, “I shall keep what is best for me but not for my child”. What type of mother or father are you? In the Gospel, Jesus Himself asked: “Would a father hand a scorpion to his child who asked for bread?”. But, if you can live with that, it just says quite clearly you do not know what you are receiving.
This is the 5th Sunday and we are inching closer to the mystery of our salvation. The raising of Lazarus is not really about him. Lazarus is just the side dish. What is at centre of this seventh sign is the Resurrection. The Resurrection is logically the promise of the Eucharist as St. Irenaeus (died 202) once said, "when our bodies partake of the Eucharist, they are no longer corruptible as they have the hope of eternal Resurrection" (Against the Heresies, IV, 18,5).
FOOTNOTE:
[1] All his sins, big or small, need to be purified before he worthy to join the angels and saints at the altar praising God. If a person dies and is not constrained by time and space, it means that funerals are for the living, never for the dead.
