22 March 2026 (Sunday) / Fifth Sunday of Lent / Third Scrutiny of the Elect

22 March 2026 (Sunday)

Fifth Sunday of Lent.
Third Scrutiny of the Elect.

Readings from the Bible of the Roman Catholic Church:

First Reading: Ezekiel 37: 12-14
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 129(130)
Second Reading: Romans 8: 8-11
Verse Before the Gospel: John 11: 25a, 26
Gospel: John 11: 1-45
Liturgical year 2026 (Cycle A/II)
Liturgical color: violet (or purple)

First Reading : Ezekiel 37:12‐14

The Lord says this: I am now going to open your graves; I mean to raise you from your graves, my people, and lead you back to the soil of Israel. And you will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and raise you from your graves, my people. And I shall put my spirit in you, and you will live, and I shall resettle you on your own soil; and you will know that I, the Lord, have said and done this – it is the Lord who speaks.

Responsive Psalm : Psalm 129(130)

With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.
Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord,
  Lord, hear my voice!
O let your ears be attentive
  to the voice of my pleading.
With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.
If you, O Lord, should mark our guilt,
  Lord, who would survive?
But with you is found forgiveness:
  for this we revere you.
With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.
My soul is waiting for the Lord.
  I count on his word.
My soul is longing for the Lord
  more than watchman for daybreak.
(Let the watchman count on daybreak
  and Israel on the Lord.)
With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.
Because with the Lord there is mercy
  and fullness of redemption,
Israel indeed he will redeem
  from all its iniquity.
With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.

Second Reading : Romans 8:8‐11

People who are interested only in unspiritual things can never be pleasing to God. Your interests, however, are not in the unspiritual, but in the spiritual, since the Spirit of God has made his home in you. In fact, unless you possessed the Spirit of Christ you would not belong to him. Though your body may be dead it is because of sin, but if Christ is in you then your spirit is life itself because you have been justified; and if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, then he who raised Jesus from the dead will give life to your own mortal bodies through his Spirit living in you.

Verse Before the Gospel: John 11: 25a, 26
25a, 26 I am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will never die.
(17. On arriving, Jesus found that Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days already.
18. Bethany is only about two miles from Jerusalem,
19. and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother.
20. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming she went to meet him. Mary remained sitting in the house.
21. Martha said to Jesus, 'Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died,
22. but even now I know that God will grant whatever you ask of him.'
23. Jesus said to her, 'Your brother will rise again.'
24. Martha said, 'I know he will rise again at the resurrection on the last day.'
25. Jesus said: I am the resurrection. Anyone who believes in me, even though that person dies, will live,
26. and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?
27. 'Yes, Lord,' she said, 'I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who was to come into this world.')

Gospel : John 11:1‐45

There was a man named Lazarus who lived in the village of Bethany with the two sisters, Mary and Martha, and he was ill. It was the same Mary, the sister of the sick man Lazarus, who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair. The sisters sent this message to Jesus, ‘Lord, the man you love is ill.’ On receiving the message, Jesus said, ‘This sickness will end not in death but in God’s glory, and through it the Son of God will be glorified.’
  Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, yet when he heard that Lazarus was ill he stayed where he was for two more days before saying to the disciples, ‘Let us go to Judaea.’ The disciples said, ‘Rabbi, it is not long since the Jews wanted to stone you; are you going back again?’ Jesus replied:
‘Are there not twelve hours in the day?
A man can walk in the daytime without stumbling
because he has the light of this world to see by;
but if he walks at night he stumbles,
because there is no light to guide him.’
He said that and then added, ‘Our friend Lazarus is resting, I am going to wake him.’ The disciples said to him, ‘Lord, if he is able to rest he is sure to get better.’ The phrase Jesus used referred to the death of Lazarus, but they thought that by ‘rest’ he meant ‘sleep’, so Jesus put it plainly, ‘Lazarus is dead; and for your sake I am glad I was not there because now you will believe. But let us go to him.’ Then Thomas – known as the Twin – said to the other disciples, ‘Let us go too, and die with him.’
  On arriving, Jesus found that Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days already. Bethany is only about two miles from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to sympathise with them over their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus had come she went to meet him. Mary remained sitting in the house. Martha said to Jesus, ‘If you had been here, my brother would not have died, but I know that, even now, whatever you ask of God, he will grant you.’ ‘Your brother’ said Jesus to her ‘will rise again.’ Martha said, ‘I know he will rise again at the resurrection on the last day.’ Jesus said:
‘I am the resurrection and the life.
If anyone believes in me, even though he dies he will live,
and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.
Do you believe this?’
‘Yes, Lord,’ she said ‘I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who was to come into this world.’
  When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in a low voice, ‘The Master is here and wants to see you.’ Hearing this, Mary got up quickly and went to him. Jesus had not yet come into the village; he was still at the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who were in the house sympathising with Mary saw her get up so quickly and go out, they followed her, thinking that she was going to the tomb to weep there.
  Mary went to Jesus, and as soon as she saw him she threw herself at his feet, saying, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’ At the sight of her tears, and those of the Jews who followed her, Jesus said in great distress, with a sigh that came straight from the heart, ‘Where have you put him?’ They said, ‘Lord, come and see.’ Jesus wept; and the Jews said, ‘See how much he loved him!’ But there were some who remarked, ‘He opened the eyes of the blind man, could he not have prevented this man’s death?’ Still sighing, Jesus reached the tomb: it was a cave with a stone to close the opening. Jesus said, ‘Take the stone away.’ Martha said to him, ‘Lord, by now he will smell; this is the fourth day.’ Jesus replied, ‘Have I not told you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?’ So they took away the stone. Then Jesus lifted up his eyes and said:
‘Father, I thank you for hearing my prayer.
I knew indeed that you always hear me,
but I speak for the sake of all these who stand round me,
so that they may believe it was you who sent me.’
When he had said this, he cried in a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, here! Come out!’ The dead man came out, his feet and hands bound with bands of stuff and a cloth round his face. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, let him go free.’
  Many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary and had seen what he did believed in him.

For our reflection today:

At midday today, the Holy Father Francis led the recitation of the Angelus prayer from the Library of the Vatican Apostolic Palace.

Before the Angelus.

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!

The Gospel passage of this fifth Sunday of Lent is that of the resurrection of Lazarus (cf. Jn 11: 1-45). Lazarus was the brother of Martha and Mary; they were good friends of Jesus. When He arrives in Bethany, Lazarus has already been dead for four days; Martha runs towards the Master and says to Him: “If you had been here, my brother would not have died!” (21). Jesus replies to her: “Your brother will rise again” (23) and adds: “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die” (25). Jesus makes Himself seen as the Lord of life, He Who is capable of giving life even to the dead. Then Mary and other people arrive, all in tears, and so Jesus - the Gospel says - “was deeply moved in spirit and troubled … Jesus wept” (33, 35). With this turmoil in his heart, He has the tomb opened and cries aloud: “Lazarus, come out!” (43). And Lazarus emerges with “his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face” (44).

Here we are able to touch with our hand the fact that God is life and gives life, yet takes on the drama of death. Jesus could have avoided the death of His friend Lazarus, but He wanted to share in our pain for the death of people dear to us, and above all He wished to demonstrate God’s dominion over death. In this Gospel passage we see that man’s faith and the omnipotence of God, of God’s love seek each other and finally meet.  It is like a dual street: the faith of man and the omnipotence of God’s love that seek each other and finally meet. We see this in the cry of Martha and Mary, and all of us with them: “If you had been here!”. And God’s answer is not a speech, no, God’s answer to the problem of death is Jesus: “I am the resurrection and the life”… have faith. Amid grief, continue to have faith, even when it seems that death has won. Take away the stone from your heart! Let the Word of God restore life where there is death”.

Today, too, Jesus repeats to us: “Take away the stone”. God did not create us for the tomb, He created us for life, beautiful, good, joyful. But “through the devil’s envy death entered the world, and those who belong to his company experience it” (Wisdom, 2: 24) says the Book of Wisdom, and Jesus Christ came to free us from its bonds.

Therefore, we are called to take away the stones of all that smacks of death: for example, the hypocrisy with which faith is lived, is death; the destructive criticism of others, is death; offence, slander, is death; the marginalisation of the poor, is death. The Lord asks us to take away these stones from our hearts, and life will then flourish again around us. Christ lives, and he who welcomes Him and follows Him comes into contact with life. Without Christ, or outside of Christ, not only is life not present, but one falls back into death.

The resurrection of Lazarus is also a sign of the regeneration that takes place in the believer through Baptism, with full integration with the Paschal Mystery of Christ. Through the action and power of the Holy Spirit, the Christian is a person who journeys in life as a new creature: a creature for life and that goes towards life.

May the Virgin Mary help us to be compassionate like her Son Jesus, Who made our pain His own. May each of us be close to those who are in difficulty, becoming for them a reflection of God’s love and tenderness, which liberates from death and makes life victorious.
(The Pope’s words at the Angelus prayer, 29.03.2020)

Jonathan Fabian Ginunggil,
Pelayan Atasan Tertinggi / Most High Servant,
Yesus, Maria, Yusuf Pelayanan Kasih / Jesus, Mary, Joseph Ministry of Love 
(Blessed and Saints and the Nine Choirs of Angels)

My vocation is Blessed and Saints.

"I am the most humble of all the Saints in Heaven" Mary, Mother of God."

"I am the handmaid of the Lord, said Mary ‘let what you have said be done to me."

Mother Mary is the most humble Saint in Heaven and she is also the Mother of God for us all
(Luke 1:38)