CALLEd TO NEW LIFE
“Lazarus, come out!” – Jn 11:43
There have been many times I have been called to a new life beyond fear, shame, anxiety, and self-reliance. Like Lazarus, Jesus stands outside the tomb of my attachments and unfreedom, beckoning boldly, “Tri, come out!” Yet, I hesitate to walk out of the entrance, with its stone already rolled away.
In today’s Scrutiny Year A Readings, death and rising from the dead take various forms. In Ezekiel, death looks like hopelessness, and resurrection comes as hope infused into an exiled, suffering community. For Paul, resurrection means new life with Christ through the death of sin. And in the Gospel, resurrection involves a new life from physical death.
Consider the areas of death in your life and the world around you – those spaces of hopelessness, brokenness, loss, or unhealthy attachments. What spaces need new life, and what would resurrection look like in those spaces?
Resurrection is an intimate experience of union with God. It is a call and response, a physical and spiritual drawing out from death into new life. Jesus stands at the entrance of our darkness, not with judgment, but with an impossible and powerful love, calling us by name to risk greater trust. Just as he weeps for Lazarus, Jesus also weeps for us. He grieves with us and with those who mourn. He embraces us in our suffering, lifts our burdens, and beckons us to come out from the areas of death and sin in our own lives.
Jesus knows our “stuckness”, lack of trust, or hesitancy to receive. He’s not asking us to save ourselves or unwrap what binds us. He invites us to take one step into a new life with him – a relationship of greater freedom and trust. That step may involve spending time in honest prayer this week, being vulnerable and real about what burdens us, binds us, and keeps us from embracing the new life he offers.
I have not always taken the risk. However, whenever I did, I’ve never regretted my response.
Consider the areas of death in your life and the world around you. What spaces need new life, and what would resurrection look like in those spaces?
Imagine Jesus calling you to “come out” and be set free from those “dead” spaces. How would you honestly respond?
Tri Dinh, SJ