Catholic Gospel Reflection: Faith When Life Gets Messy | Fifth Sunday of Lent (Year A)
In this Rebel Saints episode, Nicole explores the Raising of Lazarus (John 11) for the Fifth Sunday of Lent, Year A. Jesus declares, "I am the resurrection and the life," confronting the tombs in our lives: spiritual dryness, shame, sin, broken relationships, or feeling hope is gone.
No situation is beyond God's reach. From Ezekiel's promise to rise from graves to Romans' Spirit alive in us, discover real hope this Lent. Lazarus had to respond to Jesus' call—and we must too. Take one concrete step out of your "tomb" this week.
If you're a restless heart seeking real Catholic encouragement, this episode is for you.
TRANSCRIPT
Rebel Saints Podcast - 5th Sunday of Lent Cycle A - 3-22-26
00:00:09 Nicole Olea: Hi everyone. It's Nicole. Welcome back to Rebel Saints. We're the podcast where we're actively trying to adult survive the week and somehow grow closer to Christ at the same time, while vaguely hoping we end up being the saints God apparently thinks we can be. No one's got it all figured out. That's why we're here. This week's readings confront us with something we often try to avoid, something we tend to push to the edges of our awareness. And that is the reality of death.
00:00:37 Nicole Olea: Not only death, but the kind of spiritual and emotional death that can take root in different areas of our lives. These readings are also filled with a bold, unshakable hope because they reveal God is not intimidated by death in any form, and in fact, he enters directly into it in order to transform it from the inside out. Did I say that right? I feel like that's so confusing, but you get the point of it, right? Like he goes, becomes human, conquers death. Okay, this week, we are going to be talking about the readings for the fifth Sunday of Lent in cycle A. Oh man, this gospel is probably one of the most, I don't know, like unbelievable, but also believable stories. Like, I can't imagine what it would have been like to actually have been there.
00:01:32 Nicole Olea: So we encounter the raising of Lazarus in John chapter eleven. Now, if you grew up Catholic or, in another Christian denomination, this is probably a story you've heard many times. So it can be easy, for us to approach it with a kind of familiarity that can cause us to miss its depth. But if we slow down and pay attention, we can see it's not only a story where Jesus performs a miracle. this is another moment where Jesus is revealing his identity, and when he does, it is the catalyst that changes so much. And we have to look at what he says in this, reading.
00:02:29 Nicole Olea: He doesn't say, I will bring resurrection or I will give life. Instead, he declares, I am the resurrection and the life. In other words, resurrection is not just something Jesus does. It's who he is. Life is not something he offers. It flows directly from him. And this is where the gospel. If we let it, will stop being a story about Lazarus alone. And it can become a story about each one of us. Because if we're honest, part of the human condition is that sometimes we can find ourselves in a place where we feel lifeless, stuck, buried beneath layers of fear, shame, discouragement, sin, laundry. There may be patterns that we have tried to break and failed, relationships that feel fractured beyond repair, wounds that we have carried for so long. We allow them to define us, or even a sense that our spiritual life has grown distant, dry, or disconnected. In those places, whether we say it out loud or not, we often come to believe a lie. This is part of my life. It's too far gone. Or this can't change. Or it's just the way things are.
00:03:49 Nicole Olea: The gospel this week confronts that lie head on. Because when Jesus arrives at the tomb, Lazarus hasn't just died. He's been dead for four days. This is a detail that matters Because Jewish understanding of time. There was no ambiguity. Death was complete, irreversible and final. Martha even voices what everyone is thinking when she says, Lord, by now there will be a stench, which is her way of saying Jesus. The situation has moved beyond the point of hope, and it is precisely there. In that place of finality, Jesus chooses to act. This is exactly what we hear echoed in the first reading from Ezekiel, where God proclaims, I will open your graves and have you rise from them, and I will put my spirit in you, that you may live. Notice God doesn't say he will simply improve the condition or make their circumstances slightly better. Instead, he speaks in terms of graves being opened and life being restored. This isn't self-help. This isn't like, you know, hey, I'm going to give you like a gym membership or I'm going to give you this really great, meditation technique. It's going to change your life. No, this is resurrection. This is like a true complete transformation. And then Saint Paul in the letter to the Romans takes us even further because he makes it personal. He says, The very spirit that brought Jesus out of the tomb is not distant or abstract, but is alive and present with you right now. And if that's true and you believe it to be, then it can change the way we see everything, because it means no part of your life is beyond God's reach.
00:05:53 Nicole Olea: No situation is beyond his ability to redeem, and no wound is beyond his capacity to heal. But here is where we need to be honest. Because even though that power is real, we don't always experience it. And the gospel does give us a clue as to why. So Jesus doesn't raise Lazarus from a distance, right? He stands before the tomb. He doesn't go into the tomb. He doesn't carry Lazarus out. He doesn't lay hands on Lazarus. He's not like, you know, last week. He's not, spitting and making mud and rubbing it all over his body. No. He's telling Lazarus in a loud voice, Lazarus, come out. Which means Lazarus can't be passive at this moment. I mean, for a dead guy, that's got to take some effort, right? But he's got to respond.
00:06:49 Nicole Olea: He must somehow, in the middle of being dead, begin to move toward the voice that is calling him. And this is where the story sets up the challenge, right? Because we often say that we want God to change our lives, that we want healing, freedom, and renewal. But at the same time, there can be a part of us that has grown comfortable in the tomb. It's like I'm laying here, I'm all wrapped up in this like, cozy shroud. I'm like, you know, sitting in my juices, so to speak. And, you know, it's not necessarily good, right? But it can be familiar. And stepping out would require trust, vulnerability, and the willingness to leave behind what we've known, even if what we've known has been limiting or painful. Jesus, he knows this.
00:07:46 Nicole Olea: It's a human flaw, and he knows all about those, right? So he continues calling out to Lazarus. And just as he continued to stand at Lazarus tomb and call out, he continues to stand at the entrance of whatever tomb we find ourselves in. And he calls us by name, not in condemnation, but in invitation. An invitation to step into something new, an invitation to trust that life is possible again. An invitation to believe the story is not over. And then after Lazarus comes out, as if that's not like the most remarkable thing ever. Jesus, you know, turns to those around him and says, untie him and let him go. Because even after being brought back to life, Lazarus is still bound in his burial clothes. And in that same way, even after we begin to respond to God's call,
00:08:44 Nicole Olea: there are often things that still hold us back habits, fears, attachments, or lies that need to be loosened and removed over time. I mean, habits are hard to break for a reason. Resurrection in this sense is both an event and a process. It begins with a decisive moment of responding to Jesus. But it doesn't end there. It continues as we allow him and the community around us to help set us free more fully. So the question we are left with today is not whether we believe Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. The actual question is whether we are willing to hear him calling us personally out of the places in our lives that we have given up on. You know that saying, God helps those who help themselves. I think this is the point. Jesus raised Lazarus. But Lazarus had to take action and come out.
00:09:45 Nicole Olea: What is the tomb that you have been living in? What is the area of your life where hope feels distant or even unrealistic? And what would it look like concretely and specifically to take one step toward the voice of Jesus this week?
00:10:02 Nicole Olea: The responsorial Psalm gives us the posture we need. Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord. It does not begin with strength or clarity or confidence, but with honesty. With a cry that comes from the depths. And it is precisely from that place we encounter the mercy of God. Because with the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption. Not partial redemption, not temporary relief, but fullness. if there is someone in this gospel who could speak to that posture, like if she was sitting right before you today, that would be Mary of Bethany, the sister of Lazarus. Like in her time, she was a rebel saint, quite literally. Right. Because she is not approaching Jesus from a distance or from a place of theory, but from the middle of grief, from the middle of confusion, from the middle of a situation that already feels final. Yet she knows who he is, right? And when she finally encounters Jesus and tells him, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. She gives voice to a question that so many of us carry, even if we rarely say it out loud. Jesus, where were you? Why does it feel like you came too late? Why does it feel like you're not on my side. Even Martha is like, what can you do? By now, his body is doing the thing that dead bodies do. What they both Mary and Martha, could not see. And we are talking about people that had Jesus like right in front of their actual eyeballs, is that Jesus is not late. He is about to reveal that he is Lord even over what seems final. And what is beautiful, is that this moment does not stand alone. Because later in the gospel, another Mary, Mary Magdalene, will stand outside another tomb. And just like Mary of Bethany, she will be weeping. She will be searching. She will not yet understand what God is doing, until she hears her name spoken. Mary. And in that moment, everything will change. So, friends, here is your invitation. As we move closer to Easter. Do not remain in the tomb. Do not accept the lie that it is too late. Do not settle for a version of your life that is smaller than what God desires for you. Because God dreams bigger, more greater dreams for you than you could ever dream for yourself. Instead, listen for his voice. Allow it to reach into the places that feel most closed off and take one real, only one, concrete step in response. Remember, God helps those who help themselves. So you gotta just take one action. God is there. He's outside. He's like, literally waiting for you. Because resurrection, is not just something we celebrate at Easter. It is something God desires to begin in you even now.
00:15:16 Nicole Olea: Let's pray. Jesus, you are the resurrection and the life. And you see the places in me that feel buried, tired, or beyond hope. Give me the courage to hear your voice and the strength to step out of whatever is holding me back. Breathe your spirit into the parts of my life that feel dead. And gently unbind me from anything that keeps me from you. Jesus, I trust that you are still calling me to life. Amen. In the name of the father and the son and the Holy Spirit. All right Rebel Saints. That's all I got for you this week. And I just can't tell you enough how glad I am to have you here with me. And as always, if you enjoyed this episode or feel like you got something out of it, please share it with someone who might need to hear, that hope is still possible. Keep showing up, okay? Keep pressing forward and keep becoming the saint you were created to be. Because the voice of Jesus is still calling, and it's calling you to life. I'm Nicole and this is
00:16:25 Nicole Olea: Rebel Saints. For restless hearts called to be saints. Restless hearts. You are welcome here.
