March 22, 2026

Fifth Sunday in Lent Cycle A

Ezekiel 37:12-14; Romans 8:8-11; John 11:1-45

A new deacon moved to a small town and was in the process of taking care of all the things you need to do when you move. One of his stops was the post office, but he as having trouble finding it. He stopped and asked a young man for directions. After being told, he asked the man if he belonged to a church. The man replied that, no, he didn't go to church. The deacon, knowing that his bishop really wanted everyone in his diocese to be very active in evangelization, invited him to attend the town's Catholic church. The man asked: “Why should I go to church? It's just a bother.” The deacon said: “You want to get to heaven when you die, don't you? We'll show you the way.” The man laughed and said: “You don't even know to get to the post office.”

Well, I do know how to get to the post office in Conway, but someone, or more probably something – GPS – had to tell me the first time. And I do know how to get to heaven, but I also had to be told this as well. None of us are born with this knowledge. We all have to be shown the way. We are born with an innate desire to attain something that brings true meaning and purpose to our lives, for something greater than ourselves, but is a directionless desire unless someone shows us how to channel it successfully. This is the reason Christ came to this earth. It is the purpose for what the Church calls revelation: we could not know it until God himself revealed it to us. And this is a perfect time, with the final week of scrutinies, to take stock of this. Our Church, over the last three Sundays has put together, back-to-back, three Gospel readings from John that are a clear roadmap for us to follow. They point from Jesus to Jerusalem, to the cross, and finally to Easter morning.

Let me first talk about what are these things called the scrutinies that people who are making their sacraments on the Easter vigil are participating in. They are ancient rites, going back to the first centuries of the Church. The ancient Church understood what Christ meant when they said that you must have faith in me. Some through the years since have wanted to change faith into an intellectual exercise of belief. Anyone living in Judea around the time of Christ would not recognize that as faith, but only part of faith. Faith is a lived experience. If someone has faith, they show that faith in what they say and how they act. Therefore the Church has always made it clear that one must learn the teachings of Christ before receiving the sacraments, that they might truly live them out after receiving them. This is what the purpose of the scrutinies is: that those who will be brought into the Church, as well as those adults already in the Church that are completing their sacraments of initiation up through Confirmation, would understand what they are asking for and therefore make an informed promise to live them out.

So the Church has picked out three very important passages where God, through his Son, reveals himself to us in very clear passages. Two weeks ago, we heard the story of the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus tells her that he is the living water and tells her that he is the messiah. That Gospel ended with these words from the townspeople of the Samaritan village: “we know that this is truly the savior of the world” [John 4:42 NABRE]. Then last week we had the story of the man born blind being cured by Jesus. Jesus tells the man that he is the Son of Man [John 9:35-36], and the man comes to believe. And finally this week we hear about Jesus raising his friend Lazarus back to life. Jesus again reveals himself when he says that “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die” [John 11:25b-26a].

So the Church has taken three important passages and put them together in the scrutinies and tells both those about to receive sacraments as well as the rest of us the fundamental basis of Christianity: belief in Jesus Christ is the gateway to the kingdom of heaven. That is to say, the key to both a joyful life here on earth as well as eternal joy in the presence of God. But like I said, belief is not a point in time. It is not baptism or any other sacrament. It is not a confession of faith. It is not an intellectual exercise that agrees that this is true. It includes all of that, but that is only the start. We then need to live it out, follow the directions that we have been given by Christ, and orient our life accordingly.

But this is hard. Recall the words of Thomas in the Gospel: “Let us also go to die with him” [John 11:16b]. Understand that today's Gospel happens on the way to Jerusalem, one week before Jesus will be put to death. The disciples, including Thomas, didn't know the events that would shortly take place, but they certainly knew that Jesus was unpopular with the Jewish leaders there. Following Jesus was becoming increasingly difficult and risky for them. Jesus knows the way, is teaching us the way, and following is what he asks of us. We have a choice: you can either see danger, death, sorrow, the grave, or you can see challenge, resurrection, joy, a right relationship with our God. We see all these things in microcosm in today's Gospel and in their fullness during the events we celebrate during Holy Week. Jesus is showing us the way – the question is: are we paying attention?

With the scrutinies, our Church is asking the candidates and catechumens if they are ready to go where Jesus is leading. The Church is also asking the rest of us here to renew that commitment to follow where our Lord leads us, and moreover to help those in our faith community to do so, supporting each other through the hardships that it sometimes entails. Do you know how to get to heaven? Our Christian faith is both the knowledge of how to get there as well as the actions necessary to move in that direction. If your faith makes you willing to do so, let us make this journey together, both new and established members of our faith community, and may we share this wonderful faith to all those in our community that need this in their lives, whether they realize that they are lost or not.

As we continue with the celebration of the Eucharist, may our communion with one another also instill the grace of knowing and following the teachings of Christ. May we be not only be strengthened in faith by each other and the sacraments but also provide the support for others on the journey with us. Some days it might seem like we are lost, but Christ, the living water, Christ, the Son of Man, Christ, the resurrection and the life, will be there to help us complete the journey. He told us that. We believe that. We have faith.