Today is the Gospel of the raising of Lazarus... and we all remember when his sister, Martha, worries that when they take the rock away from his tomb that the stench will be bad, as he has been in there dead for 4 days! Living on the farm this is something that we have encountered now and then...working with Oliver these days it has been very recent that we encounter that "fetid stench" as we remove the dressings that have been on there for 24 hours... a good amount of pus builds up in the wound and it does have a bad odor... yet we are amazed at the healing that is taking place before our eyes!
It just seems so appropriate today with this talk of how Lazarus is representing all of our sins and death and darkness that we struggle with, and Jesus calls us all out of the tomb -"tied hand and foot with bruial bands, and his face was wrapped with a cloth." John 11 Aren't we all wrapped up by life and all that binds us, and aren't we also blinded by the things that cover our eyes and mislead us into darkness and sin? So much to learn today, so much to hope for today, and so much to know that we are being healed underneath of all the distractions and and resulting death and infection from our sins...
Even though we know that we are sinners and continue to be weak and sinful - if we every day take advantage of all that our Church has to offer us with mass and receiving our Lord in the form of the Eucharist and the Word of the day - The Gospel and all that HE teaches us and shows us and directs us to LIFE with HIS WORD! Then to use those devotions that are so wonderful like the rosary and the morning and evening prayers - the Office! There is no end to the ways that we can daily wash away the "fetid stench" that has accumulated under the burial bands that are all around us! 
Pat and I just shared morning prayer, and it was delightful as he started sharing about the years of his youth on the farm - back in the uncomplicated days of no air conditioning and no TV to speak of and no computers - " On a hot day you would go out of the hot house... there would be times where we would be looking for a brother, who had crawled into the pellet bin and taken a nap. Or I can remember looking for a shady place in the grove with a bit of breeze and next thing you know you have been sleeping for an hour. You would come out and the others would ask where you have been... shrug." Life is not so uncomplicated anymore unfortuanately and there is much to bind us hand and foot... may we attempt to walk away from all that more and spend time with our spiritual devotions and reading! I am very excited at a project that I have to write about how John Paul II soon to be Blessed on May 1st... has affected my life! It will be a battle to keep it short, and without a doubt I will share it here also! 
Oliver has also gotten medicine inside of his system to help him heal... we also need to take the medicine that our Church has for us to take each and every day of our lives of Faith!
"For Lazarus whom the Lord raised up exuded so fetid an odor that no one could approach his tomb, as a symbol of Adam whose soul exuded such a great stench and was full of blackness and darkness. But you, when you hear about Adam and the wounded traveler and Lazarus, do not let your mind wander as it were in the mountains, but remain inside within your soul, because you carry the same wounds, the same smell, the same darkness....Thus we were wounded by an incurable wound. Only the Lord could heal it... He alone,when he came, healed that sore, the incurable sore of the soul.... For He is always knocking at the doors of our hearts in order that we may open up to him and that he may enterin and take rest in our souls, and that we may wash his feet and he may take up his abode with us."
Pseudo-Macarius (390) an Egyptian Monk and Hermit
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