IV Sunday in Lent:[2012]: 2Chro
36:14-17, 19-23; Eph 2:4-10; Jn 3:14-21
Introduction: In the first reading from the Second Book of
Chronicles, we learn the compassion and patience of God. God allowed
Cyrus the Great, a pagan conqueror, to become the instrument of His mercy and
salvation to His chosen people who were in exile in Babylon. In the second reading, Paul
tells us that God is so rich in mercy that He has granted us eternal salvation
and eternal life as a free gift through Christ Jesus. Today’s gospel has
a parallel theme but on a much higher level. Jesus, the Son of God,
became the agent of God's salvation, not just for one sinful nation but for the
sinfulness of the whole world. Through John 3:16, the gospel teaches us
that God expressed His love, mercy and compassion for us by giving His only Son
for our salvation. Nicodemus, the wealthy Pharisee and member of the Sanhedrin,
meets Jesus by night and begins a long religious discussion. Jesus explains to
him that he must believe Jesus’ words because he is the Son of God. He
further explains to Nicodemus God’s plan of salvation by referring to the story
of Moses and the brazen serpent. Just as God saved the victims of serpent
bite through the brazen serpent, He is going to save mankind from its sins by
permitting the crucifixion and death of His Son Jesus because the love of God
for mankind is that great.
Event : "Rejoice,
Jerusalem! Be
glad for her, you who love her; rejoice with her, you who mourned for her" (Entrance Antiphon -- Isaiah 66:10-11). Why
does the church invite us in the middle of the penitential season of Lent to
rejoice? The story of a little incident that took place in Mainz in 1456 when Gutenberg was printing the
first printed Bible can help us with the answer.
The printer had a
little daughter, Alice, who came into the printing press and picked up a
discarded sheet with only one line of print. That line of print read: "God
loved the world so much that he gave..." Now, those were times
when popular religion was a matter of living in fear and trembling before the
awesome wrath of God. So Alice
put the paper in her pocket and kept on thinking on the fact of God being so
loving, and her face radiated with joy. Her mother noticed her changed
behaviour and asked Alice what was making her so
happy and Alice
showed her mother the sheet of paper with the printed line. Her mother looked
at it for some time and said, "So, what did God give?" "I don't
know," said Alice,
"but if God loved us well enough to give us something, then we need not be
so afraid of Him."
Love: What
is love? What does it mean to say God loves us? To understand what the Bible
means by God's love we must bear in mind that whereas the Greek language has
three different words for three different types of love English has only one.
In Greek we have (1) eros meaning romantic love (like the love
between a man and a woman that leads to marriage), (2) philia
meaning fellowship love (like the love for football which brings people
together to form a fan club), and there is (3) agap or
sacrificial love (like the love that makes a mother risk her own life for her
yet unborn child). In romantic love we long to receive, in fellowship love we
long to give and take, in sacrificial love we long to give. Now, with what kind
of love does God love us? God loves us with agap or sacrificial love. "God
loved the world so much that He gave." That is one big difference between
God and us: God gives and forgives, we get and forget. Giving is a sign of
agap. This is the kind of love God has for us. This is the kind of love we
should have for one another. This is the kind of love that is lived in heaven.
And where this kind of love is absent, what you get is hell.
Anecdote: A
certain saint asked God to show her the difference between heaven and hell. So
God sent an angel to take her, first to hell. There she saw men and women
seated around a large table with all kinds of delicious food. But none of them
was eating. They were all sad and yawning. The saint asked one of them,
"Why are you not eating?" And he showed her his hand. A long fork
about 4ft long was strapped to their hands such that each time they tried to
eat they only threw the food on the ground. "What a pity" said the
saint. Then the angel took her to heaven. There the saint was surprised to find
an almost identical setting as in hell: men and women sitting round a large
table with all sorts of delicious food, and with a four-foot fork strapped to
their arms. But unlike in hell, the people here were happy and laughing.
"What!" said the saint to one of them, "How come you are happy
in this condition?" "You see," said the man in heaven,
"Here we feed one another." Can we say that of our families, our neighborhood,
our church, our world? If we can say that, then we are not far from the kingdom
of heaven.
Practical: Today the Church invites us to reflect on God's love
for the world and to be joyful because of it. God loves each and every one of
us, so much so that He give us His only son. Today we are invited to say yes to
God's love. It is sometimes hard to believe that God loves even me, But I
believe it because I know that God loves unconditionally; no ifs, no buts. Then
we can love God back and enter into a love relationship with God. Then, like
little Alice,
our faces will radiate the joy of God's love. Then we shall learn to share
God's love with those around us. Then we shall learn to give to God and to one
another.
Introduction : IV Sunday in Lent :
Laetare Sunday
Message
: Laetare Sunday or Rejoice Sunday sets a tone of joyful anticipation of the
Easter mystery. God pardons and raises
up those who have been unfaithful, those who have loved the darkness rather
than the light. For God so loved the
world that he sent his only son to deliver the world from exile.
March
19 Monday : Saint Joseph,
spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Joseph
is honored on 19 March since the end of the 10th c; declared Patron
of the Universal Church in 1870 by Pope Pius IX; patron of workers, carpenters,
and of fathers; also of Austria, Belgium, Bohemia, Canada, Mexico, Peru, and
Vietnam: mentioned in the Roman Canon.
23rd
Friday : Saint Turibius of Mogrovejo, bishop
Toribio,
1606; from Salamanca; as a layman he was the chief judge of the Inquisition at
Granada; as archbishop of Lima he presided over the III Council of Lima(1583);
established the first seminary in the New World; sought to alleviate poverty
among the native population; contemporary of Rose of Lima; patron of Latin
American bishops.
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