REFLECTION
This long reading from the Passion of Jesus
is presented by Matthew as a series
of alternating scenes in which
the disciples fail while Jesus commits
himself both to them and to the Father.
The betrayal by Judas, the disciples fleeing
at his arrest and Peter’s denial,
all highlight sinful humanity and imperfect faith.
But it is this very state that Jesus
has come to redeem.
The moment of his death is when
this redemption is achieved.
At that moment, the veil in the Temple,
which hangs in the Holy of Holies
where God dwells, is torn asunder.
God is no longer separated from humankind.
God’s indwelling has burst the confines of the
Temple and permeated all the world.
Heaven and Earth are no longer separate
from each other.
In the salvific death of the God-man,
Heaven and Earth are united again.
Ironically, it is the gentile centurion
who proclaims the divinity of Jesus:
’In truth this was a son of God.’
For Matthew, this is symbolic of the rejection
of Jesus by the Jews and the movement
of the gospel into the gentile world where Jesus is
recognised, accepted and glorified.

REFLECTION
The pure human emotion of Jesus in this text
attests to the love he had for Lazarus,
but this human affection is nothing compared to
the future promise to which the
actions of Jesus towards Lazarus will lead.
For those without faith, the tomb is
simply a place of human corruption and decay.
Death is has ultimate power over people.
But for people of faith, the tomb holds no fear.
It is ironic that in raising Lazarus to life, Jesus is
ensuring his own death at the hands of
’the Jews’ (see verses 49-53).
Through the death and resurrection of Jesus,
the power of sin and death is broken and instead,
resurrection and life are offered to all who would
attest, with Martha, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.
It is Jesus who is the Resurrection and the Life!
There is a fundamental difference between the
death and resurrection of Lazarus and that of
Jesus. Lazarus will return to death, symbolised
by the fact that he still wears the clothes of death
when he comes from the tomb.
Jesus’ death, however, will lead to a glory which
lasts forever, symbolised by the fact that his death
clothes are folded and placed to one side when he
emerges from the tomb (see Jn. 20:6-7).
The resurrection of Jesus brings eternal life.   

REFLECTION
There are two main points of today’s gospel:
the journey towards faith and belief
of the blind man and the contrast
of attitudes of the blind man and his interrogators.
Like the Samaritan woman at the well
of last week’s gospel, the blind man gradually
moves from lack of faith to faith.
First the blind man refers to the one
who effected his cure as ‘the man called Jesus’;
then he proclaims him a prophet
and a man from God and finally
declares ‘Lord, I believe’ and worships him.
This openness to the revelation of God
acting in Jesus is contrasted with the
‘blindness’ of the Pharisees who,
though physically able to see,
do not recognise Jesus.
The blind man ironically declares,
‘Now here is as astonishing thing!
He has opened my eyes and you
don’t know where he comes from!’
John’s use of the term ‘the Jews’,
indicates that this group is from the
religious leadership, the very people
who are trained in the Law and ways of God.
They, of all people, should know
what is from God!

REFLECTION
This Gospel should be read in conjunction
with the first reading from Exodus in which
the people of Israel, liberated from slavery in
Egypt, are left thirsting in the desert.
God provides them with water to sustain
their journey through the wilderness
to the Promised Land.
In the Gospel, the thirst of the Samaritan
women is a much more profound thirst
and her openness to the living water offered
by Jesus and her gradual journey to faith are
what is at the heart of this text.
She moves from a superficial understanding
that Jesus may be offering her a permanent
supply of water to a deeper appreciation
of him as one who intimately understands
the yearning of the human heart
and offers her a way forward.
Not only does the woman come to faith
but she is instrumental in leading others
to belief as well, using the classic words
of invitation to discipleship in John’s Gospel:
‘Come and see a man … I wonder if he is the
Christ?’

REFLECTION
In the later part of Matthew’s Gospel,
Jesus warns his disciples that he must journey
to Jerusalem to suffer and die and to rise again.
He begins his journey towards his fate but that
journey is interrupted by this wondrous moment
where he is revealed as the glorious Messiah,
the beloved Son of God.
There are echoes in the language of this text
of the Jewish expectation of the Messiah
coming in glory at the end of time.
Through the appearance of Moses and Elijah
in this scene, Matthew links Jesus
intimately with Jewish expectation.
The Law, represented by Moses, established
a covenant with the chosen people and
it was the role of the prophets,
represented by Elijah, to constantly remind
the people of their covenant obligations.
Both the Law and the Prophets looked forward
to God’s final intervention in human history
and here, Jesus is presented as that intervention.
The disciples want to capture this moment and
freeze it in time by building shrines, but Jesus is
adamant that the journey must continue to its
final outcome which will confirm God’s
action in human history.
It is not until Christ has been raised that the truth
of this vision will be known.