Take a deep breath. We made it! We made it through the past year, we made it through all the turmoil of our world recently, and we made it to the Fifth Sunday of Lent. Formerly known as “Passion Sunday,” this is the final week before Holy Week begins on Palm Sunday next week. The final days of Lent are approaching, and resurrection is in the air.

Even if you are wrangling a toddler throughout the Liturgy of the Word today, you still can’t miss the resurrection theme in Scripture:

Thus says the Lord God: O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them, and bring you back to the land of Israel (Ez 37:12).

If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit dwelling in you (Rom 8:11).

Our friend Lazarus is asleep, but I am going to awaken him (Jn 11:11).

Apparently, the Lord knows we’re a little slow on the uptake, so he patiently repeats himself. We’ve almost made it through Lent. The Resurrection is coming; Easter draws near. Christ invites you to come closer, to put sin to death with him, and to ready yourself for the beauty and wonder of the Easter season.

These words refer to the Lenten season in which the Church participates, but perhaps you, like so many others recently, have experienced a Lenten season of the soul. Perhaps you have wondered if the “death” that holds you will, in fact, give way to a resurrection. Will you, can you rise from the challenges you face? Perhaps you have thought there will be redemption for others, but not for me. As we prepare to enter the Garden of Gethsemane next week, where even our Lord loses sight of the resurrection for a moment, hear these words: I will open your graves.

Nothing could be more certain than the Resurrection in Christ. Whatever you may be facing today, big or small, embrace the truth that Scripture shares with us. Death will be defeated, and we will rise again.