Homily: Fifth Sunday in Lent
March 22, 2026
My dear brothers and sisters, the Lenten season of this year is fast coming to an end. We are celebrating the liturgy of the fifth Sunday of Lent. In the readings of today, we see this continuous invitation calling on us to strive to see that our faith in God is strengthened all the more. These readings remind us of the truth in the word of God in Romans 8:28, “all things work together for good to them that love God.” Jesus tells us in Matthew19:26, that which is impossible in the sight of we mortals becomes possible in the presence of God.
The first reading is taken from the prophet Ezekiel. The prophet Ezekiel accompanied the people of Israel into exile when the king of Babylon conquered Jerusalem. Life in exile was very discouraging for the Israelites. There was no hope of returning home and worse still, more and more Jews went on forgetting their religion and living the pagan way of life. As a people, Israel could be considered as good as dead. It was then that this vision read in the first reading of today came to Ezekiel that dead bones shall rise again.
God showed the prophet Ezekiel in a vision a valley full of human bones, the arm bones, the ribs, the skull, different parts of the human skeleton. And God asked Ezekiel this question, “Can these bones live again?” The obvious answer would have been: “No, never.” Yet the prophet cautiously replied: “Oh Lord God, you know” it is in your hands Lord. All of a sudden something astonishing happened. There was clattering of bones against bones, as each found its match, flesh started growing around these skeletons and skin covered the flesh, and finally God breathed on these bodies and they started living again! The lesson became very clear to the prophet. Before God, impossibilities become possible. Psalm 97:5 declares, “The mountains melt like wax before the Lord of all the earth.’ Philippians 4:13: “We can do all things in Christ who strengthens us.”
The tragic situation of the people of Israel in exile, so well described by the prophet Ezekiel resembled the condition of those dry bones scattered all over. This scene appropriately pictures the situation of men and women when God is not with them. It becomes dryness, rottenness, decay, decomposition. However, the vision of new life, new flesh, new skin, new zeal, new energy shown to the prophet Ezekiel tells us of the change that comes when we open ourselves to God. We see a similar scenario in the gospel reading of today in the raising of Lazarus, when Christ was away, Lazarus was entrapped in the tomb of death, he was covered by the darkness of the underworld. However, when Christ entered the scene and spoke, the same supposedly decaying body became filled with life and joined his sisters in singing praises unto God.
Brothers and sisters, these readings show us what God can do when we are with Him. Has our spiritual condition degenerated that it can now be likened to the valley filled with dry bones or a tomb of decaying body. No matter the condition, we should not lose hope because we can do all things in Christ who strengthens us. Mary, Martha and Lazarus were family friends of Jesus and their friendship with Jesus brought back Lazarus from death to life. Our friendship with Jesus can bring that which is dead in us into a life flourishing with new spiritual energy.
The necessary condition for God to do for us this same wonder he did for Lazarus and the same wonder he did in this valley of dry bones is our faith in God, our believe in Jesus. Eight times, the word “believe” occurs in the gospel passage of today. Of those eight times, five times Jesus Himself uses the word. Jesus elicited this faith from Martha; do you believe that I am the resurrection and life, whoever believes in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die? Brothers and sisters, may we never grow tired of nourishing this faith because it is this ardent faith in God lived out in our life of charity that will bring us to the joys of everlasting life before the throne of God.
