4th Sunday in Lent
March 15, 2015
10 AM Liturgy
J.A. Loftus, S.J.
Laetare Sunday
The very first words of today’s liturgy, in the Entrance
Antiphon, are these: “Rejoice Jerusalem, and all who love her. Be
joyful all who were in mourning; exult and be satisfied at her
consoling breast.”
Rejoice! This is Laetare Sunday, the day we celebrate the
halfway point in Lent and take a well-deserved break-day. But
Lent is still far from over yet. Our readings today are a stark
reminder of that. They are about sin, and transgressions, about
infidelity and the cross being lifted up before us again. Both
perspectives need to be heard, but it poses a sure conundrum for
the “preach-er” and for the “preach-ed.”
Thus, here follows a homily about how to rejoice in our
sinfulness! I know that sounds strange, but I take pleasure in the
title of a wonderful little book by theologian James Alison called
The Joy of Being Wrong. These opposites belong together and
Christians need to pull them together daily to live out the gospel of
Jesus Christ. Here’s how.
The reading from the Second Bok of Chronicles details the
debauchery of an entire people. It begins: “In those days, all the
princes of Judah, the priests, and the people added infidelity to
infidelity, practicing all the abominations of the nations and
polluting the Lord’s temple which he had consecrated in
Jerusalem.” I doubt if many of us have come close to “adding
infidelity to infidelity” in our lifetimes. (I know it might seem like
that some days, but really?)
What we can admit, on our better and more humble days, is
that we too have committed sins, transgressions, done or said
things that we knew were wrong and hurtful. But we enjoyed
doing it anyway. These are our sins; note the plural there. (SIN-S.)
They are transgressions against some law, or principle. They may
not be few; they are not necessarily small; they are there in all of
us, and they do cry out for forgiveness—at least on occasion. But
these are only half the story.
There is a far bigger stage on which sin plays. Jesus points it
out to Nicodemus in today’s gospel. He says, “This is the verdict
2
(notice the juridical language—this is really serious stuff), this is
the verdict, that the light came into the world, but people preferred
darkness to the light….” Sin (in the singular) is far more damning,
prevalent, and pernicious. Sin (in the singular) is built into the
dynamic of our self-created world. And we are still scared,
frightened, by the light that would expose us.
The sins come from sin. The sins come through the darkness.
Listen again to John’s gospel: “For everyone who does wicked
things [really] hates the light and does not come toward the light,
so that his works might not be exposed. But whoever lives the
truth comes to the light….” These are favorite themes John’s gospel.
Remember his Prologue: “This is the light that shines in the
darkness, and the darkness could not grasp it.”
Capture the visual image for yourselves. When the darkness
covers the whole earth, and the Son of Man is lifted up (there on
that cross), in that very act, a new and pervasively powerful dawn
breaks into all human history. That light has already dawned and
will never be extinguished. Both sin and sins are of little
consequence after Golgotha and the Easter Garden.
3
The Pauline letter to the young Christians in Ephesus seals
the case. “…Even when we were dead in our transgressions…you
have been saved through grace…and this is not from you; it is the
gift of God; it is not from works, so no one may boast….” The author
continues, “God is rich in mercy.” Why? Because of the great love
God has for all of us. We did not do, and cannot do, and need not do
anything to merit it or even to deserve it. God’s mercy is graciously
free! And is available to all.
You may have noticed the old eyebrows going up last week
when Pope Francis declaimed that there was no sin that God could
not and would not forgive. None whatsoever! Skeptics, of course,
immediately quoted Matthew 12: 31-32, which says one who
blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, cannot be forgiven. Francis
calmly said nothing immediately, but yesterday simply proclaimed
a new Jubilee Holy Year to begin this Fall to celebrate God’s
greatest attribute, the one Francis himself proclaims with his
entire being, God’s Mercy that trumps even Matthews’ blasphemy
quote, and always will.
Michael Sean Winters is a fellow at the Catholic University of
America and a blogger for the National Catholic Reporter. He had
4
an interesting phrase in his Ash Wednesday blog. “Holiness, for the
Christian, does not consist in living an upright moral life. Holiness,
for the Christian, resides in the sure hope that our sins can be
forgiven, not that they can be avoided.”
I realize all this may seem too good to be true. We do
nothing; we need to do nothing; we can’t do anything anyway? We
seem to be celebrating something that cannot be. And yet is! And
that is, my friends, something to Rejoice in! Rejoice Jerusalem, and
all you who love her. Exult and be joyful all who were in mourning;
exult and be satisfied at her consoling breast. Celebrate things that
cannot be; and yet are. It’s what Lent is really about. Peace!
5