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Hi, I'm Edwards Three, and welcome to all things Catholic, where real faith meets real life.

This Sunday, when you go to Mass, you get to hear one of the most important, one of the most amazing stories in the Gospel of John, because the gospel reading is going to take you to the story

of the raising of Lazarus in John chapter 11,

which scholars point out is the turning point of the entirety of the Gospel of John.

It's the crucial catalyst to Jesus' death.

By raising Lazarus from the dead, we're going to see it's actually connected to why the chief

priest will plot against Jesus and bring him to his own death.

It's also the mathematical center of the fourth gospel.

This is really interesting.

Scholars actually done an analysis and counted up all the words.

They did a whole word count on the gospel of John, and the very center of that word count is

right here in the raising of Lazarus.

But even more important than that, my friends,

this is the theological center of John's gospel.

As one biblical scholar describes,

the raising of Lazarus is the fourth gospel in miniature.

It sums up everything that John wants to show us about Jesus

and his mission and the work of salvation

he wants to accomplish in our lives.

We're going to see this is the climactic sign that Jesus performs in his public ministry.

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