Mar.15nd, 15 Rejoice Sunday: Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI,
(2Chron 36:14-16, 19-23; Eph 2:4-10; Jn
3:14-21)
For
Readings
Today is ‘Rejoice
Sunday’. The Fourth Sunday of Lent
is called Rejoice (Lætare)
Sunday. It reminds us of the Easter
Event we look forward to, at the end of the Lenten season.
Today’s readings
stress God’s mercy and compassion, the great love, kindness and grace extended
to us in Christ. In the first reading,
we learn the compassion and patience of God.
In the second reading, Paul tells us that God is so rich in mercy
that He has granted us eternal salvation as a free gift through Christ
Jesus. Gospel teaches us that God expressed His love, mercy and
compassion for us by giving His only Son for our salvation. God wants us to be the children of Light.
When we walk
according to the gospel, we are walking in the Light. If we oppose these teachings, we
oppose Christ himself and hence we are walking in darkness. In today's text we are told that Light has come into the world, but people
loved the darkness instead of light, because their deeds were evil. There are so many dark corners in our
world. Addiction to alcohol, drugs, gambling and pornography, sexual
immorality, cheating, supporting the evils, and environmental
irresponsibility are a few of these dark corners.
It is so easy to pretend that these dark
corners do not exist. We may act like the desert nomad in the
story who woke up hungry in the middle of the night. He lit a candle and began eating dates from a
bowl beside his bed. He took a bite from
one and saw a worm in it; so he threw it out of the tent. He bit into the second date, found another
worm, and threw it away also. Reasoning
that he wouldn't have any dates left to eat, if he continued to look at it in
light, he blew out the candle and quickly ate the rest of the dates. But we have to ‘sort out’. Many times,
truth appears with harshness, while evil and crookedness engulf us with sweet
and colorful attractive words.
Our
lives matter to God, and He knows all about the dark corners of our
lives. He wants us to stop hiding our
sin in the darkness, and demands that we expose every dark corner to His Light
of life. He is giving us the Light, that
not only shows up the dirt and stains in our lives, but cleanses it away. Freely the light of his forgiveness shines
into our lives, brightening up every corner, forgiving every sin, renewing our
lives, and restoring our relationship with God. Are we ready to accept that
light?
Our role is not
only experiencing His Light, but also heralding His light to all in need. Our
love, faith and charity have to be reflected in our words, expressions, and
actions. We need to overcome the evil of hypocrisy if any. One can’t have real
love and faith and give light to others while living with hypocrisy. So, Jesus
criticized the hypocrites.
Our Holy Father Pope Francis in his Lenten message
2014 said, “The Lord asks us to be joyous heralds
of this message of mercy and hope! It is thrilling to experience the joy of
spreading this good news, sharing the treasure entrusted to us, consoling
broken hearts and offering hope to our brothers and sisters experiencing
darkness.” He continued saying, “Lent is
a ‘powerful’ season, a turning point that can foster change and conversion in
each of us. We all need to improve, to change for the better. Lent helps us and thus we leave behind old
habits and the lazy addiction to the evil that deceives and ensnares us.”
Love the Cross. Unless
we love the Cross, we can’t rejoice in Jesus. It is a forceful reminder not
only of God's love and mercy, but also of the price of our salvation. Crucifix
reminds us of the joy of the Cross and God’s love for us. Hence, no
Catholic home should be without a cross or Crucifix, the symbol of God's love. Hence let us love the Cross, wear its image
and carry our own daily crosses with joy.
Our rebirth by
water and the Spirit must be an ongoing process. The renewal of the Spirit comes, when we work
with Him to liberate ourselves from the bondage of evil behaviors and habits by
using the divine strength we receive through prayer, fasting (if our health
allows), Bible reading and the frequenting of the sacraments. During this lent,
let us become fully led by Holy Spirit. The Church reminds us to rejoice,
looking at the joy of glorious resurrection. There is peace, there is joy, and
it is ours. God bless you.
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