Belief is a life-and-death issue for Jesus. How do I see faith as lifegiving, for myself and others?

Do you believe this?" Jesus asks Martha. Do you believe that faith in Jesus will give you eternal life? In the midst of Lazarus' death, Jesus speaks this truth to the bereaved sisters Mary and Martha.

“O MY PEOPLE, I will open your graves and have you rise from them.” Are more wonderful words to be spoken in all the world? No loss is as great as what death takes from us. No sorrow is as deep as when our loved ones “go before us, marked with the sign of faith.”

Jesus shows a lot of emotion in today's gospel. He's perturbed and troubled; he weeps; he gets perturbed again. Death has that effect on most of us. Death is shocking. It makes us angry and sad.

I once heard a TV commentator say, "The difference between a rut and a grave is only about 5 and a half feet." I thought of that this week when I was reading the bold and amazing promise that Ezekiel delivers: Thus says the Lord God, "I will open your graves and have you rise from them."

A mother came up to me with her second-grade son at her  side. She told me that he had something he wanted to ask me. He held on to her hand tightly. The words clearly were difficult for him to formulate.After some squirming and hesitating, he finally asked me if he could bury his deceased pet hamster in the soil on the side of the church.

Jesus wept. Of course he did. He was human after all. And he lived in a big extended family and had lots of friends. There's no way Jesus could have gotten through life without shedding a tear or two.

Our Lord Jesus is the resurrection and the life. Let us ask for pardon for the times we have turned from that life.

But you are not in the flesh; on the contrary, you are in the spirit  . . . . Like many people in the ancient world, Paul believed human beings were made up of three parts: the physical body, the soul, and the spirit.

One truth stands firm. All that happens in world history rests on something spiritual. If the spiritual is strong, it creates world history. If it is weak, it suffers world history. --Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965)