👉🏽👉🏽👉🏽A Homily on the First #Wednesday after the #Resurrection: The Commemoration of Saint #Lazarus
Grace and peace be unto you, beloved brethren, in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who is the Resurrection and the Life.
Let us raise our minds from the dust of earthly preoccupations and turn our eyes toward the spiritual light that shines forth from the holy house of Bethany, wherein the Lord of Life manifested His divine power over death itself. Today, we gather our hearts around the solemn memory of the blessed and righteous Lazarus, whose name means “God has helped,” and whose story is written not only in the scrolls of Scripture but in the marrow of our hope.
1. Lazarus, the Friend of the Lord
Behold Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha no ordinary man, but one whom the Lord Himself deemed friend. O depth of mystery! What man can boast that Christ the Son of God calls him friend? Lazarus did not inherit such a title by flesh and blood, nor by the will of men, but by a life of holy purity and service. With his two sisters, Mary and Martha, he dwelt in Bethany, a house adorned not with gold or silver, but with virginity, obedience, and unshaken faith. While many ran to the noise of the world, these three walked in stillness with the Word made flesh. For this, the Church counts Lazarus among the seventy-two holy men and his sisters among the thirty-six holy women, a crown of sanctity upon the house of Bethany.
2. The Illness and Death of the Righteous
Yet, even the beloved of the Lord are not spared from the trials of the flesh. Lazarus, the just man, fell ill so gravely that his sisters could only mourn. And Christ, though He tarried, did not forsake them. No, beloved! He delayed not out of indifference, but to reveal the fullness of His glory. For what is faith, if it only endures when miracles are swift? It is in delay that faith is tested, and in sorrow that it shines.
On the fourth day, when the stench of death had already filled the tomb, Christ came. Not with haste, but with majesty. Martha went out to meet Him with tears in her eyes but trust in her heart, and Mary followed, weeping. The Lord O what compassion! was moved not just by their sorrow, but by the love which bore their grief. And Jesus wept. Yes, the Almighty wept. Not from weakness, but from perfect love, that He might teach us to mourn with those who mourn.
3. The Resurrection as a Sign of the True Life
Then came the voice that pierced death: “Lazarus, come forth!” O voice of power! O thunder that shatters the gates of Hades! Lazarus, bound in graveclothes, rose and came forth. Not by his strength, but by the living Word that called him by name. And Christ said, “Loose him, and let him go.”
Do you see, beloved, how this resurrection was but a shadow, a forerunner, a parable of the greater Resurrection to come? For though Lazarus was raised, he was raised to die again. His resurrection was not the end, but a sign. It pointed toward the incorruptible rising of all flesh in the last day, when death shall be swallowed up in victory.
4. The Cost of the Miracle and the Path of the Martyr
But marvel not only at the power of the miracle—tremble at its cost. For it was this very act, this raising of Lazarus, that sealed the plot for our Lord’s death. The Jews, filled with envy rather than awe, resolved that He must die. Thus, the miracle that gave life to Lazarus led to the death of Christ. O divine irony! Life gives life and is condemned to death, that by His death, He may give eternal life to all.
5. The Life of Saint Lazarus After His Resurrection
Saint Lazarus, now twice touched by death, became a living testimony of divine power. After receiving the Holy Spirit on Pentecost he who was numbered among the seventy-two he traveled and preached the gospel of salvation for forty years, lighting fires of faith until he fell asleep in peace in Cyprus around the year 74 A.D. A quiet end for one whose life had thundered with the glory of God.
Continues 👇🏽