FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT

2 Chronicles 36:14-16, 19-23

Psalm 136:1-6

Ephesians 2: 4-10

John 3:14-21

LAETARE SUNDAY

The fourth Sunday of Lent is usually called "Laetare Sunday" or Sunday of rejoicing. Why rejoicing in this time of penance and regret of our sins? The reason is this: God loves us. He is patient and never gets tired of loving us despite our unfaithfulness, sinfulness and weaknesses. Even when the situation gets desperate, he intervenes to bring us salvation and joy. 

This was the experience of the people of Israel. The first reading narrates that God tirelessly sent his prophets to the Israelites, calling them to conversion. But they would not listen. Thus, God delivered them in the hands of the Babylonians. They went to exile, a bitter experience in their history. Even then, God intervened and delivered them by raising king Cyrus of Persia who allowed them to go back to their homeland. 

In the second reading, St Paul says that God so loved us with so much love that he was generous with his mercy, when we were dead through our sins, he brought us to life with Christ. This is the amazing grace that God has revealed to us in his Son Jesus Christ.

Moreover, in his encounter with Nicodemus, Jesus reveals that God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son to us, so that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. He came not to condemn the world, but to save the world. To help us better appreciate this amazing grace and love of God, Jesus makes a reference to the lifting up of the golden serpent by Moses in the desert (cf. Num 21:6-9).

The serpent was a symbol of consolation and healing to the Israelites in the desert. Jesus on the cross becomes also the sign of our salvation, sign of God’s love for you and me. On that cross which was the symbol of humiliation and torture, death and condemnation, is found the emblem of love, forgiveness and redemption. By looking on the cross, we come to appreciate God’s love and mercy. As such, without taking God’s forgiveness for granted, we should never be discouraged or give up because of our weaknesses, failures and sins, for God is greater than our weaknesses, than our infidelities, than our sins. May he help us to always raise our eyes up to the One who was crucified for our sake. Amen.