April 6, 2014

First Reading

Ezekiel    37: 12-14

37:12 Because of this, prophesy, and you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your tombs, and I will lead you away from your sepulchers, O my people. And I will lead you into the land of Israel.

37:13 And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I will have opened your sepulchers, and when I will have led you away from your tombs, O my people.

37:14 And I will place my Spirit within you, and you shall live. And I will cause you to rest upon your own soil. And you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and acted, says the Lord God.” 

Second Reading

Romans  8: 8-11

8:8 So those who are in the flesh are not able to please God.

8:9 And you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if it is true that the Spirit of God lives within you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him.

8:10 But if Christ is within you, then the body is indeed dead, concerning sin, but the spirit truly lives, because of justification.

8:11 But if the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead lives within you, then he who raised up Jesus Christ from the dead shall also enliven your mortal bodies, by means of his Spirit living within you.

Gospel

John 11: 1-45

11:1 Now there was a certain sick man, Lazarus of Bethania, from the town of Mary and her sister Martha.

11:2 And Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was sick.

11:3 Therefore, his sisters sent to him, saying: “Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick.”

11:4 Then, upon hearing this, Jesus said to them: “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it.”

11:5 Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister Mary, and Lazarus.

11:6 Even so, after he heard that he was sick, he then still remained in the same place for two days.

11:7 Then, after these things, he said to his disciples, “Let us go into Judea again.”

11:8 The disciples said to him: “Rabbi, the Jews are even now seeking to stone you. And would you go there again?”

11:9 Jesus responded: “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the daylight, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world.

11:10 But if he walks in the nighttime, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.”

11:11 He said these things, and after this, he said to them: “Lazarus our friend is sleeping. But I am going, so that I may awaken him from sleep.”

11:12 And so his disciples said, “Lord, if he is sleeping, he shall be healthy.”

11:13 But Jesus had spoken about his death. Yet they thought that he spoke about the repose of sleep.

11:14 Therefore, Jesus then said to them plainly, “Lazarus has died.

11:15 And I am glad for your sake that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”

11:16 And then Thomas, who is called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us go, too, so that we may die with him.”

11:17 And so Jesus went. And he found that he had already been in the tomb for four days.

11:18 (Now Bethania was near Jerusalem, about fifteen stadia.)

11:19 And many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary, so as to console them over their brother.

11:20 Therefore, Martha, when she heard that Jesus was arriving, went out to meet him. But Mary was sitting at home.

11:21 And then Martha said to Jesus: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

11:22 But even now, I know that whatever you will request from God, God will give to you.”

11:23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother shall rise again.”

11:24 Martha said to him, “I know that he shall rise again, at the resurrection on the last day.”

11:25 Jesus said to her: “I am the Resurrection and the Life. Whoever believes in me, even though he has died, he shall live.

11:26 And everyone who lives and believes in me shall not die for eternity. Do you believe this?”

11:27 She said to him: “Certainly, Lord. I have believed that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God, who has come into this world.”

11:28 And when she had said these things, she went and called her sister Mary quietly, saying, “The Teacher is here, and he is calling you.”

11:29 When she heard this, she rose up quickly and went to him. 11:30 For Jesus had not yet arrived in the town. But he was still at that place where Martha had met him.

11:31 Therefore, the Jews who were with her in the house and who were consoling her, when they had seen that Mary rose up quickly and went out, they followed her, saying, “She is going to the tomb, so that she may weep there.”

11:32 Therefore, when Mary had arrived to where Jesus was, seeing him, she fell down at his feet, and she said to him. “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

11:33 And then, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had arrived with her weeping, he groaned in spirit and became troubled.

11:34 And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.”

11:35 And Jesus wept.

11:36 Therefore, the Jews said, “See how much he loved him!”

11:37 But some of them said, “Would not he who opened the eyes of one born blind have been able to cause this man not to die?

11:38 Therefore, Jesus, again groaning from within himself, went to the tomb. Now it was a cave, and a stone had been placed over it.

11:39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of him who had died, said to him, “Lord, by now it will smell, for this is the fourth day.”

11:40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you believe, you shall see the glory of God?”

11:41 Therefore, they took away the stone. Then, lifting up his eyes, Jesus said: “Father, I give thanks to you because you have heard me.

11:42 And I know that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the people who are standing nearby, so that they may believe that you have sent me.”

11:43 When he had said these things, he cried in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.”

11:44 And immediately, he who had been dead went forth, bound at the feet and hands with winding bands. And his face was bound with a separate cloth. Jesus said to them, “Release him and let him go.”

11:45 Therefore, many of the Jews, who had come to Mary and Martha, and who had seen the things that Jesus did, believed in him.