4th Sunday of Lent, Year B (LAETARE SUNDAY): Homily by Fr. Isaac Chima
Theme: Rejoice, God loves us
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Reading:
2Chro. 36:14-16,19-23; Eph. 2:4-10; 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 God’s love 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 today’s second reading 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 for 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 today’s
Gospel, 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 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.
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