(Fifth Sunday of Lent: Ezekiel 37:12-14; Romans 8:1-11; John 11:1-45)
Sooner or later the gates of death will close behind us as they did for Lazarus. In much of the Old Testament, the grave is the ultimate prison, the ultimate exile, even from God. The dead “are cut off from your care,” cries the Psalmist. “Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the shades arise and praise you?” (Ps. 88:6, 11) Through Ezekiel, however, God, using the image of death, promises deliverance from exile: “O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them, and bring you back to the land of Israel.”
“Those who are in the flesh cannot please God,” writes St. Paul. By this he means those who have do not have the Spirit, those devoid of a spiritual life. They live in a self-imposed exile from God.
These are the people Mary calls “my people.” Their behavior shows that they have rejected the salvation won for them by her Son. They have cut themselves off from her people, from “the land of the living” (Isaiah 53:8). They “cannot please God.”
The Beautiful Lady is profoundly concerned about the consequences of such an attitude: she weeps over the famine that is imminent and, worse still, the death of children. Her invitation to Mélanie and Maximin, “Come closer,” is addressed to all her people.
It is in the spirit of Ezekiel that Our Lady, Queen of Prophets, makes a promise of her own. There is hope, great hope for her people, “if they are converted.” Her message paraphrases Psalm 95: “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” Which reminds us of yet another promise of Ezekiel: “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26).
The faith of Martha and Mary is exemplary. Unlike those who harden their hearts and blame God for their troubles, they continue to believe in Jesus, even though he had not arrived in time to save their brother from dying.
Jesus shows us it is never too late to put our trust in him. Mary at La Salette reminds us of the same. It is never too late for reconciliation.
