4th Sunday of Lent
There are two Sundays in the year when we see the priest wearing rose or pink vestments, Gaudete Sunday in Advent and Laetare Sunday in Lent .This weekend we celebrate the fourth Sunday of Lent also known as “Laetare Sunday” and this mirrors Gaudete Sunday in Advent. This Sunday marks a change in our Lenten focus. We are no longer so absorbed by our own limitations and weaknesses in faith. We should be more confident of God’s kindness, forgiveness and healing without which we would never dare embark on our Lenten journey. This weekend we look forward to the Easter celebrations with joy and hope.The cause for our rejoicing is that we are getting close to Holy Week and the events that have brought us salvation at Easter. In our First Reading Judah’s betrayal of faith led to their exile as their enemies destroyed Jerusalem and the temple. God’s warnings were ignored, resulting in the Babylonian captivity. Fulfilling Jeremiah’s prophecy, the exile lasted until Cyrus of Persia decreed the rebuilding of the temple, marking the beginning of the return from their time exile. The Psalm reminds me of a song when I was growing up called by the rivers of Babylon.It was based on todays psalm and sung by a band called Boney M in the 1980s. In Babylon’s captivity, the people wept for Zion, unable to sing their sacred songs in a foreign land.
In the Second Reading God, in His mercy, made us alive with Christ, saving us by grace through faith. We are created for good works, predestined by God as he has brought us to new life in Christ. In the reading from Johns Gospel Jesus has a conversation with Nicodemus and references Moses lifting up the serpent in the wilderness as a foreshadowing of his own crucifixion and the salvation that it would bring. Jesus emphasizes the importance of believing in him as the Son of God in order to receive eternal life, and highlights the judgment that will come to those who do not believe. John tells us that a person is condemned because that individual has not believed in the Son of God.” God the Father has no desire to condemn, but people condemn themselves by putting God and the ideals of faith out of their lives. Over many centuries so many people have said there is no god or where is your God. And many people out there in our world have turned out the light of faith in their lives permanently.
I know people of all ages who have been brought up in the Catholic Faith and then have left it all behind and yet anyone who is actively engaged with faith will know that there is a god and he is there among us in the people who are in our daily lives and he is a god that cares for us with a fathers love. At the end of the Gospel we are told that Jesus the Light came into the world, but the people preferred darkness to light. Jesus was sent by God to be the light in the darkness of our daily lives. At the Easter Vigil we proclaim the risen Lord as Lumen Christi that is Christ our Light and we celebrate with joy. Today we are invited to celebrate this Sunday with joy as we look forward to the celebration of Holy Week and the great mysteries of our salvation as we prepare for the feast of Easter.
Fullerton T 