It was still dark as I was returning from early Mass at the convent. As I pulled to the driveway of the rectory, a middle-aged man was standing there waiting for me. He looked very downcast. I drew closer and asked why he looked very frightened. He started: “Father, please help me; I had a terrible dream.” Taking him to a corner, we sat down. “Now,” I said, “relax and share the experience with me.” He went on: “Fr., I dreamt that I died. I saw myself laid in state. Everyone was coming to view my corpse. Suddenly, the casket was closed on me, and then, and then...I saw myself lowered into the grave and in just seconds, heaps of sand falling on me. Then I woke.” He ended with a plea: “Fr., what can I do to avoid this?” I did my best to hold my laughter. I asked if he was a parishioner to which he answered “yes” and reminded me that three years before, I’d baptized his last child. That ceremony was the last time Tim stepped into any Church. “What about confession and communion?” I asked. It was the evening he wedded his wife—18 years before—that the priest pulled Tim aside and heard his unprepared confession; and Tim made his second communion in life at that Mass. The rest of the story is that I had before me a walking spiritual corpse who’d been laying in a grave of every kind of sin and crime for 41 years and more. The dream was a knock by Christ on Tim’s tomb to wake him from death, unbind him, so he could go meet the priest and live again. I visited St. Andrew’s a couple of years ago and saw Tim. He rushed out and gave me a big hug and told me he was the chairperson of St. Andrew’s Lay Discipleship. He said he was grateful to God (and to me) for the dream that liberated him from the chains of death and the grave. Quite a long story! Quite a resurrection story!
“Do you hear this knock on your own grave?” I do not suggest that Lazarus—the man Jesus raised from the dead—was a bad person whom the Lord freed from death. But I do suggest that some, and maybe several of us, are today wearing the accouterments of death and need to be freed. Sin does hold its captives in chains. Lack of prayer and spirituality, forgetfulness of God, impure acts and desires, love of money and security, consumerism, and neglect of the poor are all outfits of death and form a huge stone at the door of a sin-laden soul. Would you permit today that the stone be rolled away? Martha complained that Lazarus’ body would have started smelling after four days. Your soul could be as stinking as Lazarus’ decomposing body. No perfume can cure the smell of a sin-smeared soul. Only the Lord can roll away the stone and smear you with the scent of freedom, wholeness and holiness. Hugh of St. Victor said: “Damp wood kindles slowly...so are our carnal hearts. Touch them with the spark of the fear of God, or Divine Love, and the great clouds of evil passions and rebellious desires roll upwards. Then the soul grows stronger, the flame of love burns more hotly and brightly, the smoke of passion dies down, and the purified spirit rises to the contemplation of Truth.” Men are not free until they are set free by Christ. Death, grave, sin, slavery, oppression, and even law equally hold men and women in chains. By swapping these chains with that of Christ we become truly free, for “only the Christ-fettered are free” (Sheen).
Lazarus’ resurrection is not the resurrection that we await—he had to die again to attain that resurrection. His resurrection is one that is repeated each time we enter the confessional. There, the grave is busted and new life is gained. That is why the Church refers to baptism and penance as sacraments of the dead; they are sacraments given to those who are spiritually dead because of sin. Lent is a sure invitation to repentance that leads from death to life. Where sinful decay has set in, Lent and repentance bring rebirth and a flowering of Easter joy, especially for those to be born again at the Easter sacraments.
Fr. Chukwudi Jo Okonkwo