(Image from: Fourth Sunday of Lent AND St. Joseph, Husband of Mary (jesusismyredpill.com)
1st
Reading: 2Chro. 36:14-16,19-23
2nd
Reading: Eph. 2:4-10
Gospel: Jn 3:14-21
Dear
brothers and sisters, the fourth Sunday of Lent is called Laetare Sunday. “Laetare” is a Latin word, the singular
imperative of laetari: "to rejoice". On this Sunday, the
church invites us to rejoice. This call to rejoice is seen in the opening
antiphon of today’s liturgy, drawn from the Prophet Isaiah 60:10-11. It says:
“Rejoice, Jerusalem, and all who love her. Be joyful, all who are mourning,
exult and be satisfied.”
The
reason why we are invited to rejoice is because of what God has done for us in
Christ. Saint Paul captured this in the second reading of today. He said: “He
made us alive together with Christ, He saved us by grace, and raised us up with
Him, and made us to sit in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Friends, through
the death of Jesus, God gave us life. Hence, the church wants us to be joyful
in anticipation of the great Paschal events that won salvation for us. The
Paschal events are the demonstration of the love of God for us. So, we are to
rejoice because God loves us. The Gospel and the second reading of this Sunday
hinted on this love of God for us.
In the Gospel of today, Jesus
told Nicodemus: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son.”
For the sake of humanity, God offered his only Son to be sacrificed. Dear
friends, this is the highest form of love. Our God is love indeed, and His love
for humanity is constant, generous, and self-sacrificing. The unique feature or
nature of this love of God towards humanity is that it is simply heroic. It is
a gratuitous love, an unmerited love, we actually did nothing to deserve it. It
is unlike the love of human beings that usually rests on the qualities of the
object of love.
The second reading of today gave
a beautiful illustration of the unmerited love of God for humanity. It said:
“God is rich in mercy, out of great love with which he loved us, even when we
were dead though our sins, He made us alive together with Christ.” Dear
friends, the love of God searches for us to give us life and blessings even when
we have merited death and condemnation by our sins. The love of God refuses to
see us as failures even when we have been written off and condemned by fellow
human beings. The love of God keeps sustaining us in a world that is full of
sorrow, pain and hate. The love of God always fills us with the hope of
survival in this world of uncertainty.
Dear friends, to whom much is
given, much is also expected. Love is not a one-way movement. For love to grow
and bear fruit, it must be reciprocated, it must be appreciated. Hence, if God
loves us this much, what should be our response? Having shown love to his
disciples, Jesus said to them: “A new commandment I give you, that you love one
another as I have loved you.” Thus, the way to reciprocate the love of God is by
loving our fellow human beings and by loving God also. Any form of oppression,
hate, unnecessary anger, wickedness, injustice, lack of charity shown towards fellow
beings is a betrayal of the love we receive from God. Any form of impurity,
lack of faith, disrespect of holy things is against the love we should show
God.
Jesus also expects us to
reciprocate this love of God by loving the light and hating the works of
darkness. But, unfortunately, we often spend our time loving the things of
darkness and running away from the demands of the light of God. In the Gospel
of today, Jesus said that the light has come into the world, but men loved
darkness rather than the light. Are you among those who love the work of
darkness and hate the light of God? Are you among those who support evil and
clamp down on those who do good? Are you among those who condemn the voice of
truth and praise those who lie? Are you among those who praise immoral standard
as a model and, then, refer to holiness of life as unfashionable and
non-progressive? Let us not love darkness; let us not hate God’s light, because
there is a consequence for the betrayal of the love of God.
The first reading showed us how
the people of Israel betrayed the gratuitous love of God for them by living
sinful lives, by desecrating the holy places of worship, by despising the word
of God and mocking the prophets, and by loving darkness instead of light. God
punished them after a long run of patience. He allowed them to be conquered by
their enemies and taken into slavery for many years in Babylon. Our God is a
patient God, but He is also a God of Justice. He loves, He also punishes.
In fact, a good knowledge of the
history of the people of Israel would show us that the Israelites were stripped
of everything that made them a nation (the Temple, their King and their Land).
And they were taken back empty handed to the land (Ur in Babylon) from which
God called their ancestor, Abraham (Gen. 11:31). It was a return to square one.
Non-repentance, arrogance in doing evil and betrayal of God’s love can reduce
us to nothing, pulling us down from grace to grass.
The time of Lent offers us an
ocean of God’s mercy, let us embrace it. This time, the church presents before
us the greatest act of love - the death of Christ on the cross. Let us
appreciate it by saying no to sin and by renewing our heart through the
sacrament of reconciliation. We are also invited to appreciate this ultimate act
of love by sacrificing our time, resources, and talents for the good of our
neighbours and the entire society.
Fr. Isaac Chinemerem Chima
PUSC, Roma
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Thank you fada
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