FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT
First Reading: 2 Chronicles 36:14-17, 19-23
Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 137:1-6
Second Reading: Ephesians 2:4-10
Gospel: John 3:14-21
Today is the fourth Sunday of Lent, traditionally called Laetare Sunday. Laetare means rejoice. It is taken from the Latin introit of the mass which says “rejoice Jerusalem … be joyful, all who were in mourning.” Today’s celebration is marked by a relaxation of the penitential character of the Lenten season. Flowers may be used on the altar, the piano may be played more fully and priests may wear pink or rose chasuble today. The mood is one of rejoicing. Why do we have to rejoice? Because Easter is close, the moment of our salvation is coming near.
Throughout the Old Testament, God sent prophets to call the people of Israel to repentance and faithfulness to the covenant, but the people continued to rebel against Him. Sometimes He will allow them experience punishment in the form of exile. Now He sends His own Son. He sends Him not come to condemn the world but to save it. Whatever God does, He does with love and a sense of mercy. God loves man. God always acts from a motive of mercy. God never acts from vindictiveness. It is human beings who are vindictive and pay back. God does not pay back our wrongs. God is always out to be merciful and to save.
Even when God punishes, it is always a moment of grace and a great act of God’s mercy. The punishment is always medicinal and never crushing for the sake of punishing. It’s always to make us experience the negative effects of the actions we have chosen, to wake us up and turn us back to the Lord. God wants to offer us mercy. Mercy presupposes repentance. Without repentance, mercy cannot be received. This is why repentance is very important.
As we draw closer to the paschal celebration, Our Lord begins to be more explicit about His death on a cross. He will be raised on a tree so that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life in Him. In the Gospel today, a Pharisee described as a leader of the Jews and named Nicodemus came to meet Jesus. He is interested in Jesus; he believes in Him but he does not want this to be known openly. When Jesus was taken down from the cross, Nicodemus brought a mixture of aloes and myrrh to prepare the body of Jesus for burial.
Jesus says, “the Son of man must be lifted up as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so that everyone who believes may have eternal life in Him.” What is Jesus referring to? Jesus refers to an event in the Old Testament. It is not the Old Testament reading for today but it is worth remembering if we are to understand what Jesus is doing here. It is about an event during the Exodus around 1250 BC, the great journey of liberation from the land of slavery to the promised land. When they were hungry and complained to God, God sent them manner to eat. God fed them with manner until Israel reached the boarder of the promised land. Over time, the people became tired of manner and began to complain, “if only we had meat to eat! Think of the fish we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic! But now we are withering away.”
This is one of the major causes of backsliding in the journey of faith. Sometimes when trials come, we remember the fake pleasures of sin with a sense of attachment. It now seems the slavery in Egypt was not so bad after all. So, God sent them meat to eat. Numbers 11: 31 Says the Lord sent wind from the sea bringing quails with it. Now they have pancakes which they make with the manner and quails.
But it was not long before they began to complain again. They said to Moses, why did you bring us out of Egypt to die in the desert? For there is neither food nor water here; we are sick of this meagre diet. They practically rejected the food God was providing. And the divine chef was unhappy with the ingratitude of the people over the food He is providing in the desert. So God sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people. So many died. The people repented and begged Moses to intercede with the Lord. God then gives Moses the remedy. He tells him to make a serpent out of bronze, put it on a pole and hold it up for people to look at. Anyone who looks at the serpent will live (Numbers 21).
This story reminds us of a much earlier event in the Old Testament; the story of Adam and Eve. When was the last time someone or some people rejected food made by God Himself? God put Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and put fruits for them to eat. But Satan came and deceived them to eat of the fruit God had commanded them not to eat. It was a rejection of the food provided by God. As a consequence, they brought death upon themselves. In a sense, what is happening in Numbers 21 is that Israel is recapitulating the fall of Adam and Eve. But they are doing it not in the Garden of Eden but in the wilderness. Just as Adam and Eve rejected the food God gave the and brought death upon themselves, Israel in the wilderness is reject the food God gave them and brought death upon themselves. But when the people cried to God, God commands Moses to mold a bronze serpent and put it out for the people to see so that whoever looks upon it will live.
Just as the bronze serpent was a life giving antidote to the deadly venom, Jesus says that the son of man must be lifted up as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert so that anyone who believes may have eternal life in Him. Humanity as a whole has been smitten with a deadly disease. The only antidote is to look at the son of man hanging on the cross and find life through believing in Him. How does the death of Jesus on the cross cure us this deadly disease?
The bronze serpent raised on a standard is an image of Jesus who will die on the cross so that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. If those who were infected by deadly venom and death bound could live by looking upon the bronze serpent, how much more will Jesus hanging on the cross give life to those who are affected by the poison of sin and doomed to die, who look at His cross with faith.
Happy Sunday
Fr. Chidi Onwuka msscc