4th Sunday of Lent: Year B

May you through participating in today's Sunday  Eucharistic celebration receive the fullness of God's generous love that makes you an instrument of the same divine love and mercy to others.Happy Sunday! +John I. Okoye

DOCTRINE AND FAITH
(2Chronicles 36, 14-16.19-23; Ephesians 2, 4-10; John 3, 14-21; 4th Sunday of Lent:  Year B)

The entrance antiphon of this fourth Sunday of Lent invites us to rejoice: Rejoice Jerusalem … Be joyful, all who were mourning. It is a Sunday of joy. Today’s readings indicate God’s generous love for us as the motive of this joy. In the gospel reading Jesus tells Nicodemus: God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life. In the second reading Paul declares: God loved us with so much that he was generous with his mercy: when we were dead through our sins, he brought us to life with Christ - it is through grace that you have been saved. The first reading shows example of God’s mercy as, through the pagan king Cyrus, he made it possible for the exiled Jews to return home and reconstruct the Temple after a very long time.

The second book of Chronicles, from where the first reading is taken, describes how, despite the sinfulness of the people, God was moved to compassion. Again and again reforming prophets (messengers) were sent to this corrupt nation but to no avail. Not only did they ignore the prophets, they actively derided them. According to this account, it was this callous contempt that unleashed the avenging anger of God. The demise of the monarchy, collapse of the temple system of worship and deportation of the people were the inevitable consequences of this hardhearted obstinacy. The punishment was brutal and sweeping. What had been desecrated through the wickedness of the people was now purified through the inexorable fury of God’s wrath. What was not destroyed was appropriated by the conquerors. Because the people had failed to observe the Sabbath, the entire land would now be deserted in a Sabbath rest for seventy years (cf. Jer 25, 11). However, the reading ends on a hopeful note. Just as Jeremiah had prophesied the demise of Judah, so he also foretold the collapse of its conquerors and the captor (Jer 25,12). As the king Cyrus, the new Persian king came to power, through God’s inspiration, he decided to set the exiles free and made it possible for them to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. He gave them all the necessary means to do this. In doing this he did not deny the scope of the influence of the power he wielded, but he credited the God of Israel as the source of it all. King Cyrus’ intervention was another stupendous manifestation of the mercy and faithfulness/steadfastness of God, the infidelity and criminality of the Jewish people notwithstanding.

The manifestation of the mercy and generosity of God as we have seen in the first reading is only a prefiguration of God’s generosity that came to fore at the resurrection of Jesus. This is the show of God’s mercy and generosity after the extreme infidelity of the Jews when they condemned Jesus to death and rejected their Messiah. God made him rise from the dead. The resurrection is not something that concerns only Jesus; it also concerns us as Paul teaches that God, out of his love for us, raised us to life with Christ. The resurrection of Christ is a miracle of love which is much more important than the reconstruction of the temple of Jerusalem. The risen body of Christ is now the medium of both presence and worship of God. The resurrection of Christ is now a gift to the whole humanity. It is affirmed in the Gospel reading that God so loved the world that he sent his Son … God does not love only the Jews. The love of predilection which the Jew were privileged to enjoy was not an exclusive love but one destined to diffuse to all people and nations of the earth.
God loved the world and gave his only Son… God gave his Son to the world raising him on the cross and equally raising him to be with him, to the right hand of his majesty in heaven. Thus the raising on the cross was the first part of the movement of elevation. It was followed by the resurrection and then the ascension into heaven by which our human nature was placed near God to the advantage of all of us. In the gospel reading, Jesus hinted to Nicodemus that as the serpent was raised in the desert, the son of man will also be raised. Jesus accepted his being compared to the brazen serpent that was raised up in a pole. He was fully aware that the raised serpent was a symbol of sin and punishment for it. The cross, on which he was, eventually, raised signified sin and punishment for sin. But by the strength of his love, Jesus completely changed the meaning of the cross, from being instrument of punishment for rebellious slaves, to becoming the manifestation of the greatest act of love. Jesus himself affirms: No one has love greater than giving one’s life for one’s friends (John 15, 13). The cross is the greatest manifestation of God’s love. It is a love that proceeds from the heart of the Father. This love was received with gratitude and generosity by the heart of the Son and from there it spread to the ends of the world. This is surely for the salvation of the world. Jesus holds also in today’s Gospel: God did not send his Son in the world to judge the world but rather that the world be saved through him. God does not want the death of the sinner but that he repents (Ezek 33, 11). All sinners are invited to have confidence in God’s infinite mercy which is manifested in the death of Jesus on the cross.

God, however, will not force people to behave in any particular manner. That is why they can still behave as the Jews, during the destruction of the temple of Jerusalem, when they mocked the prophets. It is still possible to close ones heart against the love that comes from God and prefer darkness to light. Jesus affirms: Whoever does evil, hates the light, and does not come from the light so that his works will not be revealed. All said and done, God desires that he who does evil comes to light so that he may receive God’s infinite mercy and begin to work in truth, that is, to always walk in the direction of the light.

We are invited always to open our hearts to the infinite love of God, to his tender mercy and unbounded generosity. During Lent our joy consists of receiving God’s mercy more and more. Indeed it is not enough receiving forgiveness, but it is necessary and required to receive God’s mercy. Therefore, we have to receive this love while conducting a life full of justice and charity. In this way our life will become a testimony of love that has God as its source. Happy sunday! +John I. Okoye

pictures by chukwubike