By Most Rev Prakash Mallavarapu
Archbishop of Visakhapatnam
As we draw close to the end of the Lenten Season and look forward to experience the Easter Joy, singing, Christ is Raised, Alleluia, let us continue our preparation, personal and communitarian. It is about our life in Christ, in whom we are reborn in water and Spirit.
St. Paul in his inimitable depth and style expresses in these words in his letter to the Romans: “What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? Do you not know that all us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life” (Rom 6:1-4). Hope the following points for reflection will help us all to experience and relish the Easter Joy!
“Let us go and die with him…” (Jn 11: 16) are the words of St. Thomas, the apostle. The immediate context is the death of Lazarus. To the apostles it was surprising on two accounts:
1) The Master is telling them, “Let us go to Judea again.” This move surprises them because in Judea the Jews were trying to stone him to death;
2) the Lord is telling them, “Lazarus is dead. For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him” (Jn 11:14; read vv 7-16).
The Master is going into a situation where he will possibly be killed and St. Thomas is saying let us also go and die with him! At that stage of their life with Jesus, the disciples and apostles were still struggling to understand fully the implications of following this Master, who they believed to be the awaited Messiah. If their Master is going to die or be put to death, imaginably, one consequence would be that his followers will also have the same treatment.
We know from the accounts in the four gospels they went to Judea/Jerusalem with their Master and dined with him for the Passover meal but could not or did not go with him up to the Calvary where their Master was crucified and died as if he was a criminal. But, they did not abandon and take a u-turn, except for one. They were not fully prepared or not fully bold to come in the open, until after they encountered the Risen Christ who appeared to them and enlightened them to understand what had happened and what to look forward! In this Lenten Season we want to be with Jesus and like the Apostles at the dinner table, we declare in prayer that we want to live and die with Him or die for his sake. We do not abandon Him or give up all His teachings, the Good News of the Kingdom.
What is true is that we are not totally prepared to be with Him and for Him. Fear, hesitation, interests of this bodily sphere of life, attachments to people and things, etc. hold us back, making us as one in the crowd who say Jesus is my Lord but not as one who is prepared to say, “Let us go and die with Him.” Our prayer in this Season of Grace should be, “Lord, instill in me courage and strength, coming from my love for you, to go with you, prepared to die with you!”
“But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him” (Mk9:32): Understanding of their Lord and Master, Jesus Christ and His teachings was in a way a struggle for the disciples, including the twelve apostles.
Continued tomorrow