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Is lazarus a saint3/8/2024 The raising of Lazarus and the gathering of a large assembly of people disturbed the high priests and the Pharisees, who decided to kill Jesus and Lazarus, as well. Jesus wept at the fact of the death of his friend, Lazarus, demonstrating that the pain of death should be foreign to us. At this point what dominates is the miracle of love which triumphs over death, a promise which announces Christ’s war with death, a promise that death itself will be destroyed and made to disappear. Then came the command ‘Lazarus, come out’. He saw how death, which was not created by God, had seized his throne and now reigned over the whole world. Jesus wept because, on seeing the death of his friend, he also beheld the victory of death over the whole world. The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face’. Once this had been done ‘Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”. He ordered the stone covering the tomb to be removed. When Jesus saw the sisters and their friends sobbing, ‘he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled’. When Jesus learned of this, he said: ‘This illness hasn’t happened to bring death but to be the reason for the manifestation of the glory of the Son of God’. His sisters sent a message to the Lord, telling him his beloved friend was sick. Lazarus lived in Bethany with his sisters, Martha and Mary. Today we see the raising of Lazarus, a miracle performed by the Lord before he entered the city of Jerusalem. These are Lazarus Saturday, on which we commemorate the raising of Christ’s bosom friend, Lazarus the other is Palm Sunday, when we celebrate Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem six days before he was betrayed and suffered death on the Cross. Great Lent has been completed and ends with two splendid festal days. In the African Diasporic religion of Cuban Santeria or Lukumi, Saint Lazarus is associated with the orisha Babalu Aye in this guise he is seen as an especially benevolent spirit for those who suffer with long-term illnesses like AIDS.Hierodeacon Rafael Misiaoulis, Theologian The dogs mentioned in Christ's parable are present, licking Lazarus' wounds in an attempt to help him heal. In his iconography, Lazarus is depicted as a thin man, often in few clothes, with sores of leprosy on his body. Dives then pleads for Lazarus to be sent back to Earth to warn his five narcissistic and greedy brothers about the punishments that await those who are not kind to the poor, but, it is said, men as hard-hearted as they would not heed a call to charity, even from one who rose from the grave, and so there the matter ends. Looking up, he sees Lazarus above him, and begs Lazarus for a drop of water to drink, but Lazarus cannot help him. Due to his stinginess and unkindness, Dives is sentenced by God to an eternity of punishment in a lake of fire. As a virtuous man, Lazarus goes to his reward in Heaven and rests in the bosom of Abraham for all eternity. Dives and Lazarus both die on the same day. The wealthy man, whom tradition later named Dives, never gives Lazarus a bite of food, although he dines extravagantly himself every evening. Mercy is shown to the man by dogs who come to him and lick his wounds while he sits outside of a wealthy man's gate. In that story, Lazarus is a poor, homeless beggar suffering from leprosy. Saint Lazarus is actually a character taken from a parable told by Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. Lazarus is the patron saint for those who suffer from leprosy. Saint Lazarus is called upon to help victims of stroke, AIDS, those who are in comas, and those who suffer from other long-term, chronic health issues. Saint Lazarus depicted as suffering from hunger and leprosy and attended to by helpful dogs.
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