We know the story of Lazarus well. But do we know the experience of resurrection? This scripture may foreshadow Jesus’ eventual resurrection and victory over death on the cross, but it is also a call for us to embrace resurrection and to live as already risen beings in the way that we follow Jesus.

Ignacio Ellacuria, a Jesuit priest and theologian who was murdered/martyred along with seven others by the armed forces in 1989 during the civil war in El Salvador, spoke and wrote often about living into this reality. Ellacuria lived in a context of violence and poverty, and did not shy away from speaking against this condition or of Christ’s love in the prophetic tradition. Lazarus is our biblical example of our resurrection; Ellacuria and the other Jesuits are one of our many human examples. They lived into the promise that, in faith, we are already risen, and we will rise again.

Because resurrection is about hope and vanquishing death, living as already risen means working to restore hope now, in the face of human anguish. If we can make resurrection palpable in our own lives and congregations, we will surely realize this message in our communities.