March 17, 2002

After near-death experiences, people say their "new" lives are filled with faith, gratitude, love, and hope. In this Sunday's Gospel, Lazarus gets a new lease on life, just as we did in Baptism. Do we live our new lives with gratitude, love, and hope?

James was a new man. When the nurses and his brother told him how close he had come to dying, he realized he'd been given a second chance and a new lease on life. The new Jim was as different from the old Jim as a newborn baby is from a child in the womb. No longer was he alone and confined in the dark spirit of depression. His tomb of illness had become a womb of new life releasing him from bondage and giving him a spirit of energy and hope and connecting him with a helping compassionate community.

When we hear the promises of new life and invitations to believe in this Sunday's Scripture, it is easy to think of something after we die. But, we have already died with Christ in Baptism and, like Lazarus, we have received a new lease on life. This time it was with the Spirit of God dwelling in us. He was raised from his tomb to embrace a new and richer life of following Jesus. Like Lazarus, whose tomb became a womb of new life, we also have "new" and richer lives to live in the Spirit of faith, gratitude, love, and hope.

Lazarus was given a new lease on life, but that did not make him immortal. Eventually he had to die, just like Jesus, our loved ones and all of us. Do we believe, with Martha, that our death will be a birth into an even richer experience of new life?

SO THE QUESTION: HOW MIGHT YOUR LIFE CHANGE IF YOU HAD A NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE?

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