Episode Transcript
[00:00:06] Welcome.
[00:00:07] Today is March 22nd, the fifth Sunday of Lent.
[00:00:12] Let us open our hearts to receive the Lord's message.
[00:00:26] The seventh child in a family of 13, Walter Ciszek was a tough kid who sometimes got into trouble.
[00:00:34] Later, he surprised those who knew him when he announced plans to become a Jesuit priest.
[00:00:41] Born in Pennsylvania in 1904 to Polish immigrants, Walter began studying for the priesthood in the 1920s.
[00:00:50] At the time, Pope Pius XI was asking seminarians to prepare for secret work in Russia.
[00:00:58] Walter felt that invitation was for him.
[00:01:01] After his ordination in 1937, Father Cizak was sent to Poland.
[00:01:07] When war broke out, he crossed into Russia with fake identification papers.
[00:01:13] Father Cizak worked in secret, but was arrested and accused of being a Vatican spy.
[00:01:20] Father Cisak spent the next five years in a prison in Moscow.
[00:01:25] He suffered solitary confinement, starvation rations, beatings and interrogations.
[00:01:33] After that, he was sent to a gulag, the name for a Russian labor camp, where he labored every day in the freezing weather of Siberia.
[00:01:44] Despite harsh conditions, Father Cizak celebrated Mass in secret.
[00:01:49] He baptized, heard confessions, comforted the sick, and prayed with the dying.
[00:01:57] In 1963, after 23 years in the Soviet Union, most of them spent in captivity, Father Cizak was released in a prisoner exchange.
[00:02:08] President John F. Kennedy helped negotiate the exchange shortly before he was assassinated.
[00:02:15] Father Cizek died in 1984 with his rosary in his hand.
[00:02:21] The last words written in his diary were, I have given all for you, my Lord.
[00:02:28] Father Czechek is a servant of God on the pathway to possible sainthood.
[00:02:34] His books and writing share details of a life given over completely to the will of God.
[00:02:49] Now we turn to our reflection.
[00:02:58] Today's Sunday Gospel is the familiar story of the raising of Lazarus.
[00:03:04] It contains the belief that makes all the difference, the belief that the Lord can pull life out of any situation.
[00:03:13] Sometimes we feel about the Lord as Martha did, and you can kind of catch it in what she says to him.
[00:03:20] Thanks for coming, Lord.
[00:03:23] A little late.
[00:03:25] We know you're with us, Lord, but where were you when we needed you?
[00:03:32] But Jesus says to each of us, as he may have said to Martha, no matter when I seem to get there, I've been with you all the time anyway.
[00:03:43] No matter what you are experiencing, I can pull life out of it.
[00:03:49] I can do that with your sins, things that are your fault.
[00:03:54] I can do that with tragedy.
[00:03:56] I will do it with the crucifixion.
[00:04:00] I can do it when things happen because of the sins and failings of others.
[00:04:06] I can do it when it's the result of people's stupidity and your own included.
[00:04:12] I can pull life out of anything.
[00:04:16] That is the lesson of Lazarus rising.
[00:04:20] And if we can believe that, then it makes all the difference.
[00:04:25] We never need to lose hope.
[00:04:28] We can always put our faith in Him.
[00:04:30] We can respond to difficult circumstances his way, even sin and violence, and know that he can pull life out of it.
[00:04:40] It's a beautiful belief.
[00:04:45] As we approach the great feast of Easter, we can catch the spirit of this gospel and live this belief.
[00:04:53] We can let it touch our whole life and brighten up our faces and help us live in the sure hope that the Lord is right next to us and that he can pull life out of any situation.
[00:05:16] Spend some quiet time with the Lord.
