SUNDAY GOSPEL

Fifth Sunday of Lent (26 March 2023) John 11,1-45

Now a man was ill, Lazarus from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.

Mary was the one who had anointed the Lord with perfumed oil and dried his feet with her hair; it was her brother Lazarus who was ill.

So the sisters sent word to him, saying, “Master, the one you love is ill.”

When Jesus heard this he said, “This illness is not to end in death, but is for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.

So when he heard that he was ill, he remained for two days in the place where he was.

Then after this he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”

The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you, and you want to go back there?”

Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in a day? If one walks during the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world.”

“But if one walks at night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.”

He said this, and then told them, “Our friend Lazarus is asleep, but I am going to awaken him.”

First Reading: Book of Ezekiel 37,12-14.

Thus says the Lord GOD: O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them, and bring you back to the land of Israel.

Then you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and have you rise from them, O my people!

I will put my spirit in you that you may live, and I will settle you upon your land; thus you shall know that I am the LORD. I have promised, and I will do it, says the LORD.

Second Reading: Letter to the Romans 8,8-11.

Brothers and sisters: those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

But you are not in the flesh; on the contrary, you are in the spirit, if only the Spirit of God dwells in you. Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is alive because of righteousness.

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 that dwells in you.