Chapter
18
by Fr. Thomas Keating
Lazarus: Symbol of Christian Awakening
Part I
The story of Lazarus is a preview of
Jesus' approaching death and resurrection. Lazarus stands for the fallen
humanity about to be raised from the death of sin to life in God through
Christ's passion, death, and resurrection. The illness which Jesus allows
Lazarus to undergo is the symbol of our false self with all its weakness,
ignorance, and pride, together with all the damage lying in the unconscious from
earliest childhood to the present moment. To raise Lazarus from this illness to
life in the Spirit is the most profound meaning of the event. Lazarus'
resurrection manifests the full significance of Christ's resurrection, which
restores sinful humanity, not only to the divine life, but to its
super-abounding fullness.
Jesus hints at the special character of
Lazarus' illness in these words: "This illness will not result in death,
but will promote the glory of God." Lazarus represents in a special way
those who seek to penetrate the mystery of Christ to its dept. The disposition
is manifested by a willingness to die to the false self and to wait in patience
for the inner resurrection that can only come from Christ.
- 1 -
"A man named Lazarus was ill. He
was at Bethany, the village where Mary and her sister were living. Mary is that
person who anointed the Lord's feet with perfume and wiped them with her hair.
It was her brother Lazarus that was ill.
"So the sisters sent him this
message: 'Please, Master, you dear friend is ill."
"When receiving the news, Jesus
said: 'This illness will not result in death. No, it is to promote the glory of
God. Through it, the Son of God is to be glorified.'
"Now Jesus loved Martha and her
sister and Lazarus. So when he learned that he was ill, he tarried, it is true,
for two days in the place where he was."61
Lazarus' illness was that special kind
of illness that God sends to his friends. What did Lazarus think when Jesus did
not come? Or the sisters, as they watched Lazarus slowly wasting away? They had
sent Jesus a message about the seriousness of his illness. They knew that Jesus
loved Lazarus--loved them. He had made their home a stopping-off place on
his many journeys to Jerusalem and a place of rest after teaching in the Temple
during the day. John himself, in describing this even, seems astonished that
Jesus did not hasten to come at once. He writes, half apologetically, "He
tarried, it is true"--as if to say, "I must admit"--two extra
days after receiving the information. He apparently ignored his friend's request
and the anguish of the sisters. By staying away two more days, he not only
allowed the illness to get worse, but allowed Lazarus to undergo death and even
corruption. Lazarus was in the tomb four days before Jesus finally arrived.
What is this mysterious illness that
comes upon those whom Jesus loves in a special way? It is the recognition of the
false self, which comprises all the evil habits that have been woven into our
personality from the time we were conceived. It includes the emotional damage
that may have come from our upbringing and environment; all the harm that other
people have done to us, knowingly or unknowingly, at an age when we could not
defend ourselves; and all the methods we acquired, many of them now unconscious,
to ward off the pain of unbearable situations. This mass of human misery is a
significant part of the sufferings of the illness.
Actually, Lazarus had always been sick,
but without being aware of it. The illness consisted on his becoming aware
that he was sick and in having the illness run its full course, ending in the
death of his false self. Only then could God, through the power of the Holy
Spirit, raise him to the fullness of life, which is the fruit (here anticipated)
of Christ's death and resurrection.
The story of Lazarus falling ill and
dying is in line with the scriptural texts which manifest the trials and inner
feelings of God's friends in the face of the experience of their sinfulness.
They may not have contributed anything in the way of personal guilt. It was just
the weight of original sin and its consequences at work in their lives. This
sheer misery is the object of God's purifying action both in them and in us. The
divine light begins to shine in our souls with such intensity that we are able
to perceive clearly just how sick we really are.
If we are sitting in a dimly lit room
that seems to be well swept and respectable, and someone should turn on fifty
1,000 watt bulbs, the place would start to crawl. This is what happens
interiorly when God turns up the voltage of his inner light. Then, even one who
feels he has been great friends with God, may begin to wonder whether he has
ever heard of God. Job described his experience in these words: "What
crime, what wrongdoing is mine? Why is it that thou turnest thy back on me, and
treat me as an enemy? As well wrestle with a flying leaf, chase a wisp of straw,
as keep this jealous record against me, tax me with the offenses of my youth! To
hold me so close a prisoner, watch me wherever I go, track my footprints, when I
am no better than rotting carrion, than a garment fretted away by the moth!"62
Two extremes meet in this illness: the divine light and human misery. The
soul melts away in the presence of God. It feels its spiritual substance
demolished and cries out in the words of Psalm 69: "O God, save me; see how
the waters close about me, threatening my life. I am like one who sticks in the
deep mire, no ground under his feet; hoarse, my throat with crying wearily for
help. My eyes ache looking for the mercy of God."63
Perhaps the most poignant of all the
aspects of this experience is the confrontation between the majesty of God and
the dire spiritual poverty of the person who is becoming aware of how sick he
really is. Johan experienced this as rejection as he prayed in the belly of the
whale: "Here in the depths of the sea's heart you would cast me away, all
the flood of your waves are sweeping over me, till it seems as if I were shut
out from your regard."64
Another characteristic symptom of
his illness is the conviction of being punished, imprisoned, abandoned, and that
God is refusing to hear one's desperate cries for help. To quote Jeremiah, the
Prophet: "Ah, what straits have I not known, under the avenging rod! I
asked for light and into ever deeper shadows the Lord's guidance led me. Always
upon me, none other, falls endlessly the blow. Broken this frame under the
wrinkled skin, the sunk flesh. Bitterness of despair fills my prospect, walled
in on every side. Buried in darkness and like the dead, interminable. Closely he
fences me in, beyond hope of rescue; loads me with fetters. Cry out for mercy as
I will, prayer of mine wins no audience. Climb these smooth walls I may not;
every way of escape he has undone.65
This is what Lazarus was feeling when
he realized that Jesus could have come and healed him, and did not come. The
illness had to run its course in order to accomplish its purpose, for there is
no way it can be accomplished except by going through it. That is why, having
heard how ill Lazarus was, "Jesus tarried for two days more in the place
where he was."
Lazarus, laid in the tomb--and starting
to corrupt--is a most vivid image of the spiritual experience of those who
suffer this inward purification, apparently forgotten and abandoned by God.
Continued next week . .
.
Footnotes
61. John
11:1-7.
To
Text
62. Job
13:24-28.
To
Text
63. Psalm
69:4-5.
To
Text
64. Jonah
2:4-5.
To Text
65. Lamentations 3:1-9 To Text
More information can be obtained by reading the book Crisis of
Faith/Crisis of Love by Fr. Thomas Keating. It is offered in our
