Lazarus Saturday
Hebrews 12:28-13:8; John 11:1-45
Read Hebrews 12:28-13:8
As we enter into this Holy Week, today’s epistle quotes the psalmist’s great confidence in God “The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid; what can man do to me?” A similar confident hope and trust in God is found in the opening irmos of the Penitential Canon of St. Andrew of Crete “He is my helper and protector and has become my salvation.”
The past year has been such a difficult one and has affected each of us in different ways, perhaps in ways we have not been able to fully understand. As we hope for an end to this time of restrictions, of enforced distance from our friends and loved ones, disruptions to our parish life, our hope perhaps might be mixed with some fear and apprehension. We may be asking ourselves “Will things ever be as they were?”, “Will I be the same as I was before the pandemic?” These are honest questions, but we may never have them answered in the way we might like. As Christians, we must not look back but always forward. In our spiritual lives, we should not want to be the same as we were before, but become more fully like Christ. Our lives as Christians are dynamic, not static, we should desire progress towards greater holiness, greater dispassion, greater love, and greater peace, all of which have their origin in our Risen Lord. In this sense, we are the true progressives.
To progress in this way is to trust in God and His action in our lives. We cannot fully control what will come, but what we can do is pray and exercise our will towards doing what is true, good, and beautiful. And how can we do this? We must place our trust in Him who is our helper, our protector, and our saviour since He is truth, He is good, He is beautiful.