Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Lent

This Fourth Sunday of Lent is traditionally called “Laetare Sunday,” from a Latin word meaning to rejoice. We’ve reached the midpoint of our Lenten observance which places the spiritual joy of Easter just over the horizon.

With this Sunday comes a shift in focus brought forward for us in the Sunday and the weekday Readings. In the first part of Lent the Gospel passages came from the Synoptics (Matthew, Mark and Luke) which speak of:
+ praying, fasting and almsgiving
+ beginning anew
+ conversion of heart
+ mutual forgiveness
+ a personal call to holiness.

The Gospel passages for the rest of Lent are taken from the Gospel of St. John, giving us a crash-course on the life of Christ, but more than that…something more like a presentation of the mystery of who Christ is.

This marks a shift from the “ethical” dimension of our Lenten observance (describing how we should live), to the “Christological” dimension: (describing who Jesus is as Son of God). All of this is revealed to us in a single sentence in today’s Gospel Reading, a passage well-known and universally loved:

“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’s love for mankind, as described in this sentence, is shown to us as something deep within the very essence of God,  as well as the reason and purpose for Our Lord Jesus Christ to come down from heaven to earth. We must keep in mind that
God’s love for us is not merely a love for humanity in general (which it is) yet God loves each human being personally and uniquely.

The late Archbishop Fulton Sheen once wrote: “Even if there were only one person in the history of all humanity that was in need of redemption, God would have sent His Son, and the Son would have undergone His entire Passion to redeem and save that one lost soul.”

God’s original purpose in creating Man was to extend His divine love into Creation in a way unique within Creation: In creating Man, God endowed a particular creature with the capacity to love as God loves. I’m not suggesting here that the rest of Creation was created without love, or that Creation does not know the love of its Creator: certainly my dog Emma loves me and, therefore, in her own canine fashion, loves and honors God.

The entire world, then, was created by the Father with a view to the Son whom God loves for all eternity. It is the love that the Father has for the Son that through the Holy Spirit, imbues the human soul with life and the capacity to love. Created in the image and likeness of God, Man was created:
+ in love
+ for love -and -
+ to love.

But because Man’s love is an imperfect reflection of God’s divine love, things go badly for Man from the beginning: God’s original purpose for Man is thwarted by Man’s Original Sin. But God would not allow His love to be thwarted. Immediately after the Original Sin was committed, God seeks Adam in the Garden. God then begins a dialogue with Adam, who is wallowing in guilt. This dialogue is the origin of human prayer, and reveals the immediacy of God’s Intention for Man,
meaning that the “process” of redemption begins at this very moment.

Sin, both Original and Actual, forms a discontinuity between God and us. But Our Lord Jesus neutralizes this distance and this discontinuity, and re-establishes for us a nearness to God. This re-establishment takes place through Our Lord’s Passion and Death…  and since the Lord’s Passion and Death are continued in each celebration of the Mass, the very redemptive act is continued  — non-stop — because somewhere on earth Mass is always being celebrated.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, once sent to us by the Father, now gives Himself to us in the Sacraments, especially in the Eucharist and, as we emphasize each year in Lent, in the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation.

This is the love of which Saint Paul writes in today’s Letter to the Ephesians. God’s redemptive love comes to us not because we merit it, but because God wills it. Saint Paul writes: “God who is rich in mercy, because of the great love He had for us…” (not just for those of ancient days, but for us here and now) “…brought us to life with Christ. (that is to say: not just in heaven to come, but here and now.) He goes on to say: “By grace you have been saved, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God.” (which is to say: not just a gift once given, but given perpetually.)

This means that here and now, and in every moment from here to eternity:
+ God the Father is loving us
+ God the Son is redeeming us
+ God the Holy Spirit is giving us the Grace to accept this love and redemption.

This, then, is the cause of our mid-lenten joy: We have come to know that love, grace, and redemption are perpetual, leading us to eternity with God. So, when we look ahead to Holy Week and Easter, and are renewed in the stories of these saving events. we can look beyond them to the Heaven that awaits us, and the God who loves us… and sing from the soul: “Laetare!” Rejoice!