LENT, TIME FOR PERFECT JOY.

March 14, 2021
Fourth Sunday of Lent - Year B.

Readings: 2 Chr 36:14-16, 19-23; Ps 137:1-2, 3, 4-5, 6; Eph 2:4-10; Jn 3:14-21.

A Dutch proverb says, “It’s a poor heart that never rejoices.” And a Spanish proverb adds, “Every season brings its joy.”

The Lenten season is known as the par excellence, season of repentance, of spiritual discipline, mortification, and mourning for our sins and failures. Besides that, Lent is also a great time of joy. For, though sinners, it opens us to the hope of forgiveness and leads us into God's mercy. Through this special season, we get to experience how great and gracious is our God. It is his mercy that leads him to sacrifice himself for our salvation.

The liturgy of this fourth Sunday of Lent plunges us in the perfect joy. The entrance antiphon bangs, "Rejoice, Jerusalem, and all who love her. Be joyful, all who were in mourning; exult and be satisfied at her consoling breast." (Cf. Is 66: 10-11) With the City of Peace, it is every one of us who is invited to rejoice. For, even though sinners, our redemption is at hand. We are immersed into the lake of God's mercy.

The Old Testament, through the book of Chronicles, tells us that God's wrath and mercy are revealed amid Israel's exile and the Lord releases his chosen people. Israel, as people, went away from God and from the way of righteousness. They fell into idolatry and did all that separate them from their God. They added infidelity to infidelity, disobedience to disobedience, and idolatry to idolatry. In his great wrath, the Lord gave them up to their enemies and they were brought unto the Babylonian exile. Amid their tribulations, however, God did not abandon them. With compassion, he will thus raise a pagan king and use him as an instrument of his kindness toward Israel. This is a motive for joy, to know that God never abandons or withholds his compassion. Cyrus became the instrument of God's mercy toward Israel in their exile. It is out of love and compassion that the Lord saved them.

St. Paul, in the second reading, reminds the Christian community that we are saved by pure grace, not through merits. The Apostle of the Gentiles starts telling the Ephesians that, “God loved us with so much love that he was generous with his mercy.” Even though we were great sinners and in debt to him, he has mercy and shows compassion. The love God has for us is beyond and above any actions we could do for it. No one can buy compassion and mercy with his actions and achievements. Forgiveness of sins is pure grace. God has no obligations toward any creatures. Instead, we are those having obligations toward him, an obligation of love and obedience.

In his conversation with Nicodemus, the Lord Jesus, in the Gospel, raises the ultimate foundation of God's mercy, his great love. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son...” It is because of his love that God saves mankind from sin and its consequences. It is because of his love that he shows his merciful face. It is also because of his love that he keeps us alive. Here, we get to understand that God is truly pure love and mercy. And getting to understand this truth leads us to genuine and perfect joy.

The joy of this fourth Sunday of Lent is that of God's love and mercy. For, yet we sin day after day against him, God never forsakes us. While we are getting closer and closer to the Easter mystery, the summit of love and compassion, we are urged through the liturgy to commit ourselves in obedience and walk the way of righteousness.

However, to know that the Lord will always forgive our sins should in no way be a reason to dwell in sin. Instead, we should double our efforts for conversion. Rejoice, says the Lord, and repent; or rather, repent to savor the perfect joy that is to come, the Easter joy.

Let's already open wider our eyes and hearts to see the light that is about to be manifest on the world through the coming Resurrection of our Lord and Savior. The circumstances and the current sanitary crisis resulted from the pandemic keep us in darkness. Let us open the door to the light of Christ. Rejoice, for the Lord is mercy and love and he has never deserted from our world.