Our Parish Liturgy Planning Committee did a  lot of excellent 
 planning for this Lent and Holy Week and Easter. And for Lent, they 
 decided on the theme, “I confess...” and so we began our Mass today 
 with that prayer, “I confess to Almighty God....” and then we 
 reflect on the gospel from that point of view. Consequently, we 
 have had homilies on “I confess decision-making is hard.... I 
 confess I need to change.... I confess I avoid strangers.... I 
 confess I have my blind spots.” And now, today, in light of the 
 Lazarus story, I have been asked to reflect on the theme, “I 
 confess I need new life.”

 Well, with all due respect to our Liturgy Committee, I absolutely 
 refuse to confess such a thing! I don’t believe I need a new life. 
 I am very, very happy with the life I have and I have been very 
 fortunate. When I retired in 2001, Father Brian invited me to stay 
 on at the rectory and to live in this wonderful Christ the King 
 Community. And so I have a very pleasant, private living room, 
 bedroom, bathroom. I share the dining room and the kitchen. My 
 evening meal is cooked for me three times a week. I stay involved 
 in parish life to the extent that I want and that I am able to do. 
 It’s a great companionship of people like Father Brian and Father 
 Aidan and Father Tom here. I find time for reading and prayer and 
 for my ministry as a cruise priest! So, how could I possibly 
 confess that I need a new life?! I will confess, however, and most 
 willingly and most fully, that I do need to reflect on the life 
 that I have. I do need to deepen my appreciation of the life that I 
 have. I do need to try to live it to the fullest degree possible. I 
 do need to nurture it to its greatest potential. I am speaking, of 
 course of the entire Christian life, not just the physical 
 surroundings of life. I am not making a distinction between the 
 physical and the spiritual, between body and spirit and soul and so 
 forth. No, I am speaking of the life that we, all of us Christians, 
 live, the Christian life, the way a Christian finds herself or 
 himself present in the reality of this world in relation to other 
 people or in relationship to God. And I have never known any other 
 kind of life.

 I have often wondered how Lazarus must have felt when he was 
 restored to physical life. Surely, he must have felt strange, a 
 little out of place, dead man walking, people pointing him out and 
 whispering to one another, “There goes the dead man.” Very strange, 
 I am sure. Above all, he must have felt a deep appreciation of 
 life. Perhaps, it will be our catecumens who will best show us, or 
 tell us, what it was like to feel as Lazarus felt. Because on Holy 
 Saturday night, the Vigil of Easter, in the Sacrament of Baptism, 
 they will for the very first time, come alive as Christians. Just 
 think of it, what that will mean, what that will feel like, to be 
 fully alive, to know that you were dead, but that now you are alive 
 with the life of Christ. And perhaps, in the months to come, our 
 newly baptised will be able to share with us what that felt like.

 What is this Christian life that infuses each one of us who is 
 being baptised? Well, Jesus says it is his own life. Let’s look at 
 the text of the gospel where Jesus says to Martha, “Your brother 
 will rise again.” And Martha said, “I know he will rise in the 
 Resurrection on the last day.” as if to say, you know, that’s the 
 way of the future. But Jesus told her, “I am the Resurrection and 
 the Life. Whoever believes in me, though he should die, will come 
 to life, and whoever is alive and believes in me will never die.” 
 Now, when Jesus said this, Lazarus was in the tomb. But Jesus is 
 saying, “He’s alive.” In other words, Lazarus who loved Jesus, who 
 believed in Jesus, is alive with the life of Jesus. And this is 
 true of all who believe in Jesus. It is true of you, of me, we who 
 have been given new life in Christ through our baptisms. And that 
 is why I say “We do not need new life. We already have it!  ...We 
 already have it!”  What we need to do is to reflect on it, to live 
 it, to nourish it, to cherish it. We are already living the 
 beginning of eternal life. It’s our Christian faith, that physical 
 death is not the end, that we will continue living as we are 
 living, living with the life of Christ himself that we received in 
 our baptism. Whoever is alive and believes in me will never die. We 
 share in the very life that God lives. A new way of being and of 
 acting has been opened up for us. The human and the divine are 
 being intertwined in us and that is why St. Paul called the 
 baptized “A new creation.” So, because of the new life we received 
 in baptism, we are different and can act differently. We can act as 
 Jesus acted, forgive as Jesus forgave, love as Jesus loved. That is 
 the Christian life that we share and that we need to nurture.

 One final comment on this story of Lazarus.... Jesus called out 
 loudly, “Lazarus, come out!” And we are told the dead man came out, 
 bound hands and feet with linen strips, his face wrapped in a 
 cloth. And Jesus said, “Untie him, and let him go. Let him go 
 free.” Untie him and let him go free... Jesus did not bring life to 
 Lazarus on his own. He involved the community. It was the community 
 that was called upon to set Lazarus free. My Christian life, your 
 Christian life depends on a supportive and liberating community. 
 And so we have a very serious obligation to one another and 
 especially to those that are going to be baptized at Easter, an 
 obligation to create an atmosphere, a community in which all can 
 grow in the Christian life and all can rejoice in the new life that 
 Christ our Savior has given us. The great dramatist, Eugene 
 O’Neill, wrote a play dealing with the life of Lazarus after he has 
 been raised from the dead. He called it “Lazarus laughed.” And he 
 put these words into the mouth of Lazarus, “Laugh with me. Death is 
 dead. Fear is no more. There is only life. There is only 
 laughter.”  Amen.