4TH
SUNDAY OF LENT B
YEAR OF THE CLERGY
AND CONSECRATED PERSONS
MARCH 11, 2018
Jesus, I trust in you!
The tragedy of the Babylonian
that has befallen upon the Israelites was the fruit of their sins: “…all the
princes, the priests, and the people added infidelity to infidelity, practicing
all the abominations of the nations and polluting the Lord’s temple…They mocked
the messengers of God, despised his warnings, and scoffed at his prophets,
until the anger of the Lord against his people was so inflamed that there was
no remedy.” That is why they had no one to blame for their sufferings but
themselves. However, the rise of Cyrus, King of Persia, brought to them great
joy. Cyrus ordered the rebuilding of the temple of the Lord and also the return
of the Israelites to Jerusalem to end their slavery.
The proximity of Holy Week is the
reason for our rejoicing today. Why do we rejoice at the approach of Holy Week?
Is it not the time to commemorate the sufferings of the Lord? Then why do we
rejoice instead of becoming sad? The answer is this: the approach of the days
of the Lord’s suffering marks for us the nearness of our salvation. As the rise
of Cyrus to power marks the liberation of Israel from their slavery in Babylon,
so also the lifting up of the Son of Man upon the wood of the Cross will mark
our liberation from our captivity to sin: the Son of Man must be lifted up, so
that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. God loves us and he
does not want us to perish. He does not want to condemn the world. This is why
he sent his only begotten Son to die on the Cross: God so loved the world that
he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but
might have eternal life. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the
world, but that the world might be saved through him.
The reason for our joy is the
great love of God for us: Because of his great love for us, even when we were
dead in our transgressions, God brought us to life in Christ. God, indeed, is
rich in mercy. He offers us the light of Christ as a way out of the darkness of
this world. All we have to do is to approach the light which Jesus offers. And
it surprises us that people preferred darkness to light because their works
were evil. Why would people prefer darkness to light? It is because the light
exposes the ugly face of sin. Isn’t darkness deceiving? That is why beauty
pageants are done not at midday but at night. A friend once told me: Father,
when I meet a woman I fancy, I first ask her out for lunch so that I could
verify her beauty under the light of midday. People are afraid to draw near the
light of Christ because they know that he will expose the ugly face of the evil
within us. But if we want to be saved, we must draw near Christ’s light so that
realizing the gravity of our sins, we may repent and confess them so that we
may be forgiven. Operating tables are equipped by powerful lights to assist the
surgeon in their operations. So are dental chairs and derma clinics. Assisted
by powerful lights, the doctors can clearly see the tumors, the cavities, or
the blemishes that they should treat. It is when we expose our sins in the
light of confession that they are forgiven by the grace of God’s kindness to
us. Only then will we be liberated from the sadness of slavery to sin. Then we
shall rejoice in the truth. Let us then expose and confess our evil works so
that we may be freed of them. In Light there is true joy. “Whoever lives the
truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.”
O Mary conceived without sin, pray for
us who have recourse to thee!
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