Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Lent
Based on the Jn. 3:14-21(Gospel); 2 Ch. 36:14-17, 19-23 (1st Reading);
Ep. 2:4-10 (2nd Reading)
From the Series of “Reflections and Teachings of the Desert”
“GOD’S LOVE FOR US…” 1 Jn. 4:9
Based on our present study of the three readings for
this 4th Sunday of Lent, “God’s
love for us” seem likely to be the main focus and center of the message of
the three readings.
The gospel for today reads:
(Jesus
said to Nicodemus): “As Moses lifted up
the serpent in the desert, so that everyone who believes may have eternal life
in him. Yes, 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. For God
sent his Son into the world not to condemn the world but so that through him
the world might be saved. No one who believes in him will be condemned; but
whoever refuses to believe is condemned already because he has refused to
believe in the name of God’s only Son . On these grounds is sentence pronounced:
that though the light has come into the world, men have shown they prefer
darkness to light because their deeds were evil. And indeed, everybody who does
wrong hates the light and avoids it, for fear his actions should be exposed;
but the man who lives by the truth comes out into the light, so that it may be
plainly seen that what he does is done in God.”
The
following verses and footnotes:
For
Verse 14 -
Gn
22 - The sacrifice of Isaac
Zc. 12:10 - “But
over the house of David and the citizens of Jerusalem I will pour a spirit of
kindness and prayer. They will look on the one whom they have pierced; e
they will mourn for him as for an only son, and weep for him as people weep for
a first-born child.”
Footnote e for Zc.12-10 - ‘the one’ Theodotion, Jn.
19:37; ‘me’ Hebr. The death of the Pieced One occurs in an eschatological
context (cf. Rv. 1:7), ch. The raising of the siege of Jerusalem, the national
mourning, vv. 10-14, the opening of the fountain of salvation, 13:1. The
messianic age thus depends on a passion and a mysterious death comparable to
the sufferings of the servant in Is. 52:13-53:12. Jn. 19:37 sees is this
passage the figure of the passion of Christ, the ‘only son’ and the
‘first-born’, cf. Jh. 1:18,; Col. 1:15,
whose pierced body will be ‘looked on’ with the saving eye of faith, cf. Jn
3:14+; Nb. 21:8-9. And whose opened side is a fountain of salvation, Jn. 19:34;
7:38.
For Verse 16 -
Mt. 21:37p - “Finally
he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son’ he said.”
Rm. 8:32 - “Since
God did not spare his own Son, but gave him up to benefit us all, we may be
certain, after such a gift, that he will
not refuse anything he can give.”
1 Jn. 4:9 - God’s love for us was revealed when God
sent into the world his only Son so that we could have life through him.
For Verse 17 -
Jn 1:1 - In the beginning was the Word: the Word
was with God and the Word was God.
Jn 4:42 - And they said to the woman, ‘Now we no
longer believe because of what you told us; we have heard him ourselves and we
know that he really is the savior of the world.m
Jn 12:47 - If anyone hears my words and does not
keep them faithfully, it is not I who shall condemn him, since I have not come
to condemn the world but to save the world.
2 Cor. 5:19 - In other words, God in Christ was
reconciling the world to himself, not holding men’s faults against them, and he
has entrusted to us the news that we are reconciled.
Footnote a for Jn 1;1 - The O.T. speaks of the Word
of God, and of his wisdom, present with God before the world was made, cf. Pr.
8:22+; Ws. 7:22+, by it all things were created, it is sent to earth to reveal
the hidden designs of God; it returns to him with its work done, Is. 58:10-11,
Pr. 8:22-36, Si. 24:3-22, Ws. 9:9-12. On
its creature role, cf. also Gn. 1:3,6 etc.: Is 40:8,26, 44:24-28; 48:13, Ps.
33:6, Jdt. 16:14, Si.42:15; on its mission, cf. Ws. 18:14-16, Ps.107:20;
147:15-18. For John, too, 13:3, 16:28,
the Word existed before the world in God, 1:1-2, 8:24+, 10:30+. It has come on
earth, 1:9-14, 3:19, 12:46, cf. Mk 1:38+, being sent by the Father;
3:17,34,5:36, 43, 6:29, 7:29, 8:42, 9:7, 10:36, 11:42, 17:3,25,cf. Lk 4:43, to
perform a task, 4:34+, namely, to deliver 3:11+, 8:21, 12:35, 13:3, 16:5,
17:11, 13, 20:17. The incarnation
enabled the N.T. and especially John, to see this separately and eternally
existent Word-Wisdom as a person.
Footnote m for Jn 4:42 - Not merely ‘King of
Israel’ as in 1:49. This world perspective is typical of John cf. 1:29; 3:16;
11:52; 1 Jn. 2:2. Nevertheless ‘salvation comes from the Jews,’ 4:22.
For Verse 18 -
Ac. 4:12 - For of all the names in the world given
to men, this is the only one by which we can be saved.
Footnote I of
Jn. 3:18 - Semitism: the ‘name’ is the person.
Footnote e for Ac. 4:12 - ‘Jesus’ means ‘God
saves’, Mt. 1:21.
Being light to the world could
also be another theme to develop for this 4th Sunday of Lent, which
is found beginning verse 19 uo to 21 of Jn 2.
For Verse 19 -
Jn 8:12 - When Jesus spoke to the people again, he
said: ‘I am the light of the world; anyone who follows me will not be walking
in the dark; he will have the light of life.’
Ps. 52:3 - You prefer evil to good, lying to honest
speech!
For Verse 20 -
Jb. 24:13-17 -
Others of them hate the light, know nothing of its ways, and avoid its
path. When all is dark the murderer leaves his bed to kill the poor and needy.
All night long prowls the thief, breaking into houses while darkness lasts. The
eye of adulterers watches for twilight, ‘No one will see me’, he mutters as he
masks his face. In the daytime they go into hiding, these folks who have no
love for the light. For all of them, morning is their darkest hour, because
they know its terrors.
Ep. 5:13-14 - The things which are done in secret
are things that people are ashamed even to speak of, but anything illuminated
turns into light. That is why it is said: Wake up from your sleep, rise from
the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Footnote i for Jb. 24:13-17 - This attack on the
enemies of light (possibly an independent poem inserted here by the author)
brings us back to the oppressors: God
allows them to work in the dark. ‘light’ has here a moral sense also, cf. Jn.
8:12+.
Footnote j for Jb. 24:13-17 - ‘When all is dark’
corr.; ‘When it is light’, Hebr.
‘prowls’ corr.; ‘and he is like’ Hebr.
Footnote k for Jb. 24:13-17 - Line corr. Hebr.
‘because he is familiar with the terrors of deep darkness’. Vv. 18-24 are
placed after 27:23.
Footnote b for Ep. 5:14,26 – The wrong sort of way
to talk about sexual immorality is the way that leaves the subject in a
dangerous obscurity, v. 3. To talk about it in such a way however that it is
recognized for what it is will lead to its being corrected: this sort of light
is the light of Christ that puts an end to darkness.
Footnote c for Ep. 5:14,26 – This (like 1 Tm 3:16)
seems to be an extract from an early Christian hymn. On baptism as an
enlightening, cf. Heb. 6:4; 10:32 (cf. Rm 6:4+).
d – Var.
‘and you will touch Christ’.
For Verse 21 -
Tb. 4:6 - For if you act in truthfulness, you will
be successful in all your actions, as all men are when they practice what is
right.
1 Jn. 1:6 - If we say that we are in union with God
while we are living in darkness. We are lying because we are not living the
truth.
Mt. 5:14-16 - You are the light of the world. A
city built on the hilltop cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp to put it
under a tub; they put it on the lamp-stand where it shines for everyone in the
house. In the same way your light must shine in the sight of men, so that,
seeing your good works, they may give praise to your Father in heaven.
In support to our central theme,
which is “God’s love for Us”, we have the verses taken from the First Reading (2
Ch. 36:14-17, 19-23). It talks about God’s care for his people by sending them
prophets and messengers to remind them of his protection and guidance.
2 Ch. 36:15 - Yahweh, the God of their ancestors,
tirelessly sent them messenger after messenger since he wished to spare his people
and his house.
Jr 7:25 - From the day your ancestors came out of
the land of Egypt until today, day after dayg I have persistently sent you all
my servants the prophets.
Heb 1:1 - At various times in the past and in
various ways, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets.
Of course, the whole second
reading (Ep. 2:4-10) supports our central message of God’s Love For Us’:
“But God 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-d it is
through grace that you have been saved - and raised us up with him and gave us
a place with him in heaven, in Christ Jesus. This was to show for all ages to
come, through his goodness towards us in Christ Jesus, how infinitely rich he
is in grace. Because it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith;
not by anything of your own, but by a gift from God. not by anything that you
have done, so that nobody can claim the credit. We are God’s work of art,
created in Christ Jesus to live the good life as from the beginning.”
Parallel
text for verse 4:
Ex.
34:6-7 -Yahweh passed before him and proclaimed, ‘Yahweh, Yahweh, a God of
tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in kindness and faithfulness (v.
6) ; for thousands, he maintains his
kindness, forgives faults, transgressions, sins; he lets nothing go unchecked,
punishing the father’s faults in the sons and in the grandsons to the third and
fourth generation’ (v. 7).
Parallel
text for verse 5:
Rm
5:8 - But what proves that God loves us is that Christ died for us while we
were still sinners.
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